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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 




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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, TOKYO, JAPAN. 



OUR WORD AND WORK FOR 
MISSIONS 



A SERIES OF PAPERS 

TREATING OF PRINCIPLES AND IDEAS RELATIVE 

TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 

INCLUDING 

MATTERS OF HISTORIC STATEMENT, AND A PRESENTATION OF 
SOME OF THE CONDITIONS, NEEDS, AND OPPORTU- 
NITY OF MISSION WORK IN HOME FIELDS 
AND IN FOREIGN LANDS 



ISrcwareti foitfj special reference to tlje Umbersalist (£fjurcfj 



EDITED BY 

HENRY W. ilUGG, D.D. 







BOSTON 
UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE 

1894 



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AX 



Tbe Libra rY 
oF Congress 

WASHINGTON 



Copyright, 1894, 

BY 

Universalist Publishing House. 



TYPOGRAPHY BY C. J. PETERS & SON, BOSTON. 



PRINTED BY F. H. GILSON CO. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction v 

Editor. 

I. The Principle of Missions 1 

Elmer H. Capen, D.D. 

II. Possibilities of Mission Work in the TJniver- 

salist Church 16 

Charles Ellwood Nash, D.D. 

III. Our Work in the West 42 

Rev. R. A. White. 

IV. Historic View of Foreign Missions .... 65 

Richard Eddy, D.D. 

V. The General Convention and Missions ... 91 
G. L. Demarest, D.D. 

VI. Our Mission in Japan 106 

G. L. Perin, D.D. 

VII. A Japanese View 129 

Rev. Hisanari Hoshino. 

VIII. Impressions of Opportunities and Needs . . 134 
Rev. Clarence E. Rice. 

IX. Theological Education the Centre of Mis- 
sionary Effort 147 

Rev. I. Wallace Cate. 

iii 



iv CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

X. The Women of Japan . 159 

Miss Margaret C. Schouler. 

XL Christianity a Universal Religion .... 173 

Edwin C Sweetser, D.D. 

XII. The Philosophy of Missions 192 

Rev. F. W. Hamilton. 

XIII. Missionary Enterprise and its Reflex Influ- 
ence 210 

John Coleman Adams, D.D. 

XIY. The Legitimacy of Modern Missions .... 227 
James M. Pullman, D.D. 

XV. Motive and Movement in Missions 238 

Henry W. Rugg, D.D. 



INTRODUCTION. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



A consideration of the diffusiveness of the Gos- 
pel of Christ causes profound satisfaction in the 
minds of believers. It is a glad and grateful ser- 
vice to note the tendency of Christianity to spread 
beyond narrow limits and to "o'ernow the world." 
As we observe its' marvellous advances, our hope for 
the regeneration of mankind grows stronger, and we 
look forward with clearer vision to the consumma- 
tions of universal blessedness. The tendency and 
the prospect are alike delightful ; but what of human 
responsibility and duty as connected with such move- 
ments and results ? Evidently there is need of argu- 
ment and appeal to quicken the sluggish pulse of 
believers, and to rouse a slumbering church to the 
full measure of its obligations and opportunities in 
matters pertaining to the world's evangelization. For 
this purpose, and to this end, it is essential that prac- 
tical teaching forms should be presented, that care- 
ful study should be given to the various features 
of missionary enterprise, and that details of plan, 
method, and successful service should be made 
known. In such a view of the subject there would 
seem to be a place waiting for this book, and some 



vi INTRODUCTION. 

reason to anticipate its fulfilment of a ministry of 
desired usefulness. 

" Our Word and Work for Missions " originated in 
a conviction on the part of the Editor and others that 
such a volume was needed. Its publication seemed 
desirable for the purpose of specially calling the at- 
tention of Universalists to matters of missionary in- 
terest and enterprise, with a view of augmenting their 
activities in the various departments which relate to 
a forward movement. Its publication also appeared 
advisable as a means of showing the Universalist 
thought and sentiment respecting Christian Missions, 
thus presenting some desired information to inquirers 
outside of our own communion. Much misapprehen- 
sion exists in regard to the attitude of the Universal- 
ist Church ; and if the present volume shall serve to 
correct some of these errors of judgment on the part 
of our friends in other churches, one ministry of its 
possible usefulness will be fulfilled. 

The main character of this volume is suggested by 
its title. The book accords with its designation by 
being charged with the missionary spirit — the spirit 
of Christ — and by its advocacy of missionary enter- 
prise at home and in distant lands. It covers a wide 
range of topics ; it includes a presentation of princi- 
ples which underlie applied Christianity ; and it con- 
tains cogent arguments and fervent appeals calculated 
to incite the minds of believers to render a more de- 
voted service for this deliverance of their brethren 
from error and sin. It is instructive by reason of its 
historic survey of the whole field of Christian Mis- 



INTRODUCTION. Vli 

sions, and by its summarized statements of some of 
the important movements which have marked the 
progress of our own communion along the lines of 
church extension and missionary effort. Its inter- 
est is enhanced by the story that is told of the rise 
and progress of the mission in Japan. Universalist 
teachers in that distant land describe the mission 
enterprise in which they have rendered worthy ser- 
vice, and make evident some of the helps and hin- 
drances which have attended their work. They show 
opportunities, needs, results, while they set forth their 
varied experiences in such a way as to increase the 
interest which naturally attaches to their contribu- 
tions. Other chapters point out the reflex influence 
of missionary enterprise, discuss questions relating to 
plan and method, review objections sometimes urged, 
and give a needed emphasis to the higher motives 
which should animate the Church in its consecrated 
activities for the Christianizing of the world. 

The editor is the author of but a small portion of 
this book, and therefore he may speak freely of its 
plan and contents. He has asked prominent mem- 
bers of our Church — all of them clergymen, with the 
exception of Miss Schouler — to write upon assigned 
subjects, and they have responded with articles which 
appear under their respective names. The editor is 
responsible in the main for the selection and assign- 
ment of topics, and for the arrangement of the same ; 
also for required editorial supervision; but he is not 
responsible for the opinions entertained and declared 
by the contributors. There has been no censorship ; 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

each writer has had freedom of expression, hence it 
would not be surprising if some differences of thought 
should appear in the papers here presented. But 
with all the individuality which marks these utter- 
ances, they will still be found to bear the stamp of a 
substantial harmony and to express one central and 
sympathetic purpose. 

This volume contains " Our Word" for missions. 
Primarily it is the word of the several writers ; but 
it is also the expression of the church in which they 
hold membership, so far as they are qualified to rep- 
resent its sentiment on the important topics treated. 
Already the question has been asked, "What can 
Universalists have to say about Christian Missions ? " 
Not very much that is worth the world's hearing ; 
and yet because we believe we would also speak. 
The convictions herein set forth, born out of earnest 
feeling and a strong sense of obligation, should have 
expression ; and possibly these utterances may be at- 
tended by some measure of helpfulness, both within 
and without the lines of our own church. 

Our word for missions is spoken to indicate our 
appreciation of that great commission which Jesus 
gave to his people just before his ascension. On 
that memorable occasion he said : " Go ye and make 
disciples of all nations, . . . and lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world." The com- 
mand has never been revoked ; the promise has never 
been withdrawn. To the Universalist Church, as 
much as any other, so far as the import of the words 
apply, the message presents a call of duty and a 



INTRODUCTION. ix 

promise of sufficient equipment for the service re- 
quired. Our church has an interest in and responsi- 
bility for the world's salvation. It cannot be absolved 
from its accountability in this respect. It seeks no 
such release. Ours is a small church numerically; 
it has but limited resources ; its opportunities for 
missionary service are far less than those of sister 
churches ; but it makes no plea for exemption ; it 
will take its place among the advancing forces of 
Christendom and do its part, realizing that any other 
course would involve disobedience to the command of 
the risen Saviour. 

" Our Word " is a word of humble acknowledg- 
ment and devout faith, resting on the ample basis of 
the abiding presence of Christ and the promised en- 
duement of power from on high. In some sense it 
may assume to be a renewed pledge of our fealty and 
our faith; a sign and expression of our interest in 
the wants and woes of suffering humanity, and of 
our recognition of many personal and associated duties 
required by the movements of reform, education, and 
spiritual enlightenment. 

" Our Word " would be no word for missions, un- 
less it made appeal to the heroic elements in human 
nature. It is intended to do this. It would present 
the Christian knight as St. Paul portrays him, a dis- 
ciple clad in the whole armor of God, girded with 
truth, wearing the helmet of salvation, adorned with 
the breastplate of righteousness, bearing the shield of 
faith, and wielding the sword of the Spirit ; and it 
would proclaim such an one not only a true soldier 



X INTRODUCTION. 

of the cross, but the noblest and most attractive ex- 
ponent of Christianity. The Christian missionary — 
the Christian teacher and helper in any field of ser- 
vice — represents such a type of manhood. Only as 
he makes some clear showing of lofty courage, stead- 
fast faith, noble purpose, and willing self-denial, will 
he be able to express the grandeur of the Christian 
religion, and march to assured victory under the 
great Captain. The best word for missions must be 
touched with fire from heaven. It must inspire the 
hearts and lives of men, move them to undertake 
difficult enterprises, and give the assurance of suc- 
cess. Then and thus will be heard the voice of a 
divine calling, — the appeal of the Christ who is im- 
manent in men, — and in response thereto the heroic 
quality of soul will be roused and quickened, so that 
not only will there be a disposition to engage in the 
Master's cause, but full confidence also of an ability 
to render some needed service in the progress of that 
kingdom which Christ came to establish on the earth. 
In the receptive minds of young people such appeals 
will be quickly felt, and there will be no lack of con- 
fidence in responding thereto : — 

" So close is glory to our dust, 
So near is God to man — 
When duty whispers low, ' Thou must,' 
The youth replies, 'I can.' " 

"Our Word " for missions is an incitement to mis- 
sionary service. " Our Work" for missions, therefore, 
must, in the nature of things, be associated with our 
utterances respecting principles and definitions as 



INTRODUCTION. xi 

already noticed. What have we to show of mission- 
ary work attempted or accomplished? What have 
we to urge in the prosecution of such work ? 

Work for missions implies a wide range of service. 
It is an actual doing to enlighten and reform men, to 
carry the gospel into remote places, to help our fel- 
low-men who are weaker than we are, less favorably 
situated, more heavily burdened, thus presenting the 
highest and best evidence of our interest for the 
world in which we live, and of our belief in the sol- 
idarity of humanity. There are various orders of 
missionary service ; work to be done for the temporal 
and moral welfare of different classes of people in 
widely separated localities. There is always plenty of 
local work appealing to the individual and to the 
Church, beyond that the broader service of domestic 
missions, and still farther on the general work of ex- 
tending the knowledge of Christian truth and love 
among heathen nations. It is all missionary work. 
Wherever a human soul is in need there is a call 
for service. The qualifying words, "home " and "for- 
eign," as applied to missions, do not convey the idea 
of separateness to such an extent as was formerly the 
case. A geographical discrimination has but little 
force in these days. " We acknowledge no such dis- 
tinction," says a modern writer, " as a home gospel 
and a foreign gospel; a home Christ and a foreign 
Christ. The great word now is missions; missions 
to the north and missions to the south, missions to 
the east and missions to the west." The human 
world is one ; it is all one duty ; and the mission of 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

Christ's Church is to "go into all the world and 
preach the gospel to every creature," the impulse for 
such extended service arising from a faith which pro- 
claims Christ for all the world and all the world for 
Christ. Of course there are questions of opportunity, 
adaptation, and special duty to be passed upon ; but 
the field is the world, and there can be no lesser defi- 
nition of what is implied of giving and doing in the 
cause of Christian Missions. 

Our work for missions, as it appears in the record 
of this volume, or is otherwise set forth, does not 
assume large proportions. It is to our credit that 
something has been attempted. It is gratifying to 
note the fact that the organic life of our Church has 
been kept in touch with the needs of related life and 
service. Defining missionary work most broadly, we 
may claim for our Church a very practical identifica- 
tion in such service. Even Rev. Joseph Cook has 
been moved to say : " I admit it is notorious that our 
friends, the Universalists, build hospitals and asylums, 
and do their full share in philanthropic endeavor to 
improve the condition of men in this world." It 
counts for much if we are able to justify this esti- 
mate. A philanthropic Church is by no means dead 
or unworthy. In the same connection, however, Mr. 
Cook affirms that " Universalism approximates to 
barrenness in missions ; " but this charge is not 
proven. As a matter of record, Universalists, and 
the Universalist Church as a body, have shown a 
practical regard for missions, giving to this word its 
more special meaning. as separated from reform move- 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

ments and benevolent enterprises. Thus on some of 
the pages of this volume appropriate references are 
made to the ardent and self-denying labors of the 
fathers of our Church, who expressed not a little of 
the genuine missionary spirit in proclaiming the glad 
tidings of salvation wherever the door of opportunity 
was opened to them. In the face of many and great 
difficulties they wrought a mighty work for the de- 
liverance of souls from error and the bringing in of a 
boundless hope. 

Our work is not precisely the same as theirs, either 
in purpose or method. Evidently it includes a more 
orderly, as well as an augmented service in the way 
of church extension and missions. With our present 
system of organization, our larger resources, our in- 
stitutional strength and helps, and the many improved 
facilities for Christian activity, we ought, as a people, 
to be pervaded by a new ardor of missionary enter- 
prise. The individual believer should hear and heed 
the Master's call, " Go, preach my Gospel," and in 
some practical way of giving and serving respond to 
the command. " Necessity is laid upon me ; yea, woe 
is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel." The church 
should be roused by the call, realizing that its very 
existence depends upon obedience to this require- 
ment of service. Neglect of duty here will bring 
any church to spiritual declension ; obedience in this 
particular will enhance its prosperity. 

To emphasize this call, to declare what is the duty, 
and the privilege as well, of Christian service, is the 
desired ministry of this volume. Its possible prov- 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

ince of usefulness includes the quickening of mis- 
sionary zeal, — a zeal that will count for most as it 
shall be enlightened and wisely directed, — and the 
stimulating of larger and more general offerings for 
the maintenance of the institutions and the carrying 
forward of the enterprises to which our church is 
pledged. To promote such offerings much of educa- 
tion is necessary. Dr. E. G. Brooks, of honored mem- 
ory, once said, " Giving is a habit to be acquired, a 
grace to be cultivated, an attainment to be grown 
into." In presenting the cause of missions one prac- 
tical question comes ever to the front : How much 
can I give ? How much can I bestow in aid of these 
various efforts for the evangelizing of the world? 
There is no rigid rule laid down for Christian giving. 
Forced and grudging contributions, however, do not 
answer the call, " Freely ye have received, freely 
give." Gladly and gratefully, as from hearts appre- 
ciative of the worth of Christianity and in touch 
with human needs, let the offering be made and the 
service rendered. Then will the interests of Chris- 
tian Missions be promoted. Then will the faith and 
hope of the Church be enlarged, and more resolute 
efforts be put forth for the salvation of men. And 
so there shall be accomplished a grand and glorious 
work for humanity, and for Christ our Lord. 

Pkovldence, January, 1894. 




ELMER H. CAPEN, D.D. 



OUR WORD AND WORK 

FOR MISSIONS. 



I 

THE PBINCIPLE OF MISSIONS. 



BY ELMER H. CAPEN, D.D. 



Historically, Christianity lias been and is a mis- 
sionary religion. The reason for this is not far to 
seek. It is wrapped up in its nature. Christianity 
is essentially aggressive. It is spiritual. It is a 
revelation, first, of the spiritual nature and attri- 
butes of God; and, secondly, of the spiritual nature 
and attributes of man. God and man, therefore, are 
one in their nature. They are bound together by 
the closest spiritual ties. Nor is the unity an ab- 
stract conception merely, which concerns men in the 
great mass ; it descends to particulars, and shows 
itself in its regard for individuals. To the most de- 
graded specimen of the race Christ could say, " Thy 
sins are forgiven thee . . . rise up and walk." In the 
same spirit, later on, St. Peter could declare to the 
crippled beggar at the temple gate, " Silver and gold 
have I none ; but such as I have, give I thee. In the 
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." 

1 



2 OUR WORD AND WORE FOR MISSIONS. 

The more degraded and miserable a creature is, the 
stronger is his appeal to the love of Jesus, and the 
greater is the particularity of Christ's compassion 
and tenderness. 

At this point Christianity makes its fundamental 
departure from every other system. It is sometimes 
affirmed, not without plausibility, that there is noth- 
ing original in Christianity ; that every teaching 
which the system contains has been anticipated by 
sages who went before Christ. But certainly none of 
the sages of antiquity, none of the founders of reli- 
gions, had this conception of humanity, either as it 
exists in the mass, or in those primal units which go 
to make up the mass. Hence, the truly vital concep- 
tion of the nature of God and of the relations which 
exist between him and his human offspring, which 
characterizes Christianity, was wholly impossible to 
any of the previous religious teachers of mankind. 
Until Christ came the conditions did not exist for 
the notion alike of spiritual unity and universality. 
During the lifetime of the great Teacher the idea 
scarcely found lodgment even in the minds of the 
apostles. The apostles were Jews, with Jewish pre- 
possessions concerning the race limitations of divine 
favor and spiritual capacity. It does not appear that, 
in this respect, the Jews had any advantage over 
other races of men. They had been blessed with a 
nobler teaching, and possibly we may affirm that they 
had a higher spiritual endowment than any other 
people. But they were none the less hide-bound 
in their prejudices against aliens of every name. In 



THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS. 3 

the nature of things it seemed to them impossible 
that the gentiles, as such, 1 could hold to God a filial 
relation. 

With the removal of Jesus from physical contact 
with his disciples, the idea, which was at first nebu- 
lous and chaotic in their minds, by more and more 
profound meditation upon the Master's words and 
acts, and by a varied experience in making applica- 
tion of Christian truth, began to take definite shape ; 
and in a little while, like the sun struggling with the 
mists of a summer morning, it burst forth in dazzling 
splendor and irresistible power. The apostles then 
stood in a new light. They awoke to the conscious- 
ness of a new life. Their relations were incon- 
ceivably multiplied and exalted. The complete 
environment of the soul was changed. Old things 
were passed away ; all things had become new. 
That in Christ Jesus the believer was a new crea- 
ture was a literal fact, far more real and vital than 
it is possible for us to conceive ; because whatever 
change may be wrought in us by a close and em- 
phatic application of Christian truth, it can only be 
a change from a passive and negative state of Chris- 
tian consciousness to one that is active and positive. 

It was but natural that the apostles should 
compute their work from this new point; that they 
should recognize their calling as something different 
from loyalty and personal friendship to their Master, 
or from the founding of a new sect which should 

1 Proselyting was not unknown to the Pharisees. But the pros- 
elyte must become a Pharisee. 



4 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

bear his name and derive its inspiration and force 
from his doctrine. What they appear to have done 
was to look out upon the world around them. At 
first their vision was limited to those with whom 
they came into daily contact. Yet in the beginning 
their work had a cosmopolitan aspect. That was a 
motley gathering to which St. Peter preached on the 
day of Pentecost. It embraced representatives of 
almost every known race and religion. It seems 
scarcely conceivable that any such assemblage was 
ever before addressed by an Israelite. And what is 
more remarkable, the evidences of the power of 
Christian truth were just as marked in those who 
were aliens as in those who were native to the soil 
and teachings of Palestine. This circumstance was 
in itself a great marvel, and was distinctly noted as 
such ; yet it does not seem to have made the impres- 
sion upon the minds of the apostles which we should 
expect. There was a manifest tendency to fall back 
into a Jewish rut, and to restrict the scope of the 
message which had already produced such powerful 
effects. But with every such tendency there was a 
fresh call to recognize the unity of the race. The 
vision of St. Peter and the preaching to Cornelius 
■ constituted a renewal of the declaration of univer- 
sality. 

The conversion of St. Paul, however, was the 
event of the highest significance in the history of 
the primitive church. He became at once the repre- 
sentative and teacher to the entire apostolic band of 
the idea of universal humanity. This is the more 



THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS. 5 

remarkable if we remember that up to the time of 
his conversion he was the most zealous partisan of a 
sect of whom history has given any account. His 
attitude was assumed not without struggle. The 
natural impulse of his heart was for the salvation 
of Israel. But that three years of waiting and prob- 
ably of patient meditation and study, in Antioch and 
Arabia, revealed to him certain facts from which there 
was no escape. 

In the first place, he saw that the religion of Christ 
was a reality. It was no figment ; no factitious affair, 
wrought out with ingenious patience and worldly wis- 
dom ; no dream or fancy which had taken form in the 
airy realms of the imagination ; no theory which had 
been devised to meet a temporary convenience ; but a 
substantive truth based on the facts of the spiritual 
universe. It was not so much God-given as inherent 
in the very nature of God, and emanating from him 
as light and heat from the central luminary of the 
planetary system. But by the same law that it per- 
tained to God it pertained to man as a spiritual 
being. It was, therefore, for all men. He might 
wish it were otherwise ; he might seek to evade 
the logic of fact ; he might endeavor to satisfy his 
conscience by working on the narrower plane to 
which his affections and his pride of race and tradi- 
tions called him, but it was in vain. The religion of 
Christ was all-inclusive. It was universal. It con- 
cerned the gentile no less than the Jew ; and he 
who was to be its messenger must not shrink from 
making his proclamation absolutely without limita- 



6 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

tion. Nay, as it was inextricably involved with the 
nature of man he was under an obligation as impera- 
tive as the laws of the universe not only to make a 
free and open declaration of the truth, but to urge 
it upon the acceptance of those whose need, through 
ignorance and defective training, was the greatest. 

In the second place, he saw that the religion of 
Christ was adapted to universal need. Its quality 
was such that the essential requirements of the soul 
were met by it. As we have said, it was substantive, 
ingrained, as it were, in the very nature of man, but 
it was also practical. It was a law of life and duty. 
It was a quickener, rousing men from lethargy and 
inaction, and throwing them on new lines of thought 
and activity. It not only solved problems, but ren- 
dered necessary the efforts by which their solution 
was secured. It was an illuminator. The light was 
in it and of it. It flooded every subject to which 
it was applied. Men who looked at it saw that 
the substance of their life was something different 
than they had before conceived; and the way of 
life was as plain as day. It was a comforter, for 
it revealed the fact that the soul's life was as inde- 
structible as the nature of God. While it convinced 
man of sin and of the alienation which sin had 
wrought, it showed that virtue and reconciliation 
were possible to all through obedience and love. It 
bound men to God by showing that they had their 
being in his love, and that they could neither extin- 
guish the infinite mercy nor pass the limits of its 
influence and sway. 



THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS. 1 

Before such facts there was no alternative to a 
soul like St. Paul's. Necessity was laid upon him, 
woe was unto him if he abated one jot or tittle of the 
fulness of the truth. His declaration of it, moreover, 
was to be made not merely to his brethren of the 
household of Israel, whom he loved with all the ardor 
of patriotism and all the tenderness of personal sym- 
pathy and affection, but to aliens and strangers, 
wherever Roman roads and Roman ships could carry 
him. 

This is very important to be borne in mind in con- 
sidering the principle that made Christianity so com- 
prehensive in the beginning; that gave it such a 
world-wide, all-conquering, irresistible might in the 
face of opposing systems, and even of civil and mili- 
tary power. But it is equally important in consider- 
ing the later movements of Christianity. It would 
be impossible to give an intelligent interpretation of 
what are technically called missions apart from a con- 
ception of universal humanity, apart from the idea of 
the spirituality of religion. The history of missions 
shows this principle ; namely, that Christianity is in 
its nature aggressive ; that so long as souls are igno- 
rant, degraded, unreconciled, unregenerate, it must 
go after them, and must seek them out whatever their 
habitation may be. It cannot be confined. It over- 
leaps all barriers which men may set to its progress. 
In short, it is a missionary force or it is nothing. 

Consider for a moment. What from the time of 
St. Paul until now has created new centres of reli- 
gious life? 



8 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

It may be said, it has been done out of a missionary- 
enthusiasm, whatever that may be. No doubt it is 
true. Men often work from an enthusiasm, the rea- 
son and source of which they are unable to define. 
Moreover, there is something in religion which awak- 
ens this enthusiasm. It stirs the blood, kindles the 
imagination, rouses the hopes, exalts the motives of 
men, and leads to a noble consecration. All this, too, 
sometimes with reason and sometimes without reason. 

It may be said, it has been done out of a love of 
ideas. There is a measure of truth in this. As a 
thinking being, man is fond of great conceptions ; and 
when he grasps them they not imfrequently shake 
him with the force of an earthquake. He cannot 
keep them to himself. He proclaims them from the 
housetop, and finds delight in every convert he can 
make. The instances are numerous in which men 
have voluntarily assumed great burdens simply to dis- 
seminate ideas which have penetrated and possessed 
their souls. 

It may be said, it has been done out of a desire to 
rescue men from a horrible doom. I grant that this 
motive may have had sway. The impulse which leads 
us to rescue a child from drowning, to withhold a man 
on the brink of an awful precipice, to rush into a 
burning dwelling in search of a woman or a babe, is 
a natural impulse. So we would save men from a 
great spiritual doom, from the danger of temptation 
and the still greater danger of actual sin. 

But it cannot be thought that any or all of these 
reasons constitute the ruling motive of missions. 



TEE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS. 9 

The impulse that has carried men over seas, that has 
moved them to confront the perils of an inhospitable 
climate and the still greater perils of savage life, is a 
great and ineradicable affection, — an affection which 
springs out of the conception of the solidarity of the 
race, out of the conviction of the brotherhood of man. 
It should be noted, also, that the humane affection 
which leads to missionary effort is an affection not 
only for those members of the race who are like- 
minded with ourselves, but those who are at the ut- 
most verge and boundary of our human life. Nor is 
this affection wholly humanitarian. It gets its real 
force from the love of God. The fact that God has 
condescended to man, that he has shown his interest 
in him, that he has blessed him with his favor and 
mercy, constitutes a motive which nothing can resist. 
In the same way, if we consider the principle which 
through organized agencies has redeemed lands from 
heathenism in later times, we shall find that it is 
Christianity in its larger spiritual interpretation. I 
would not undertake to deny that some of the lower 
motives that I have mentioned have entered into 
these movements. Nor would I overlook the pres- 
ence of other motives equally narrow and unworthy. 
For example, dogmatism, devotion to a creed, and a 
determination to force it upon the acceptance of men, 
willing or unwilling. This purpose makes doctrine 
paramount, and insists upon putting it into a form as 
unyielding as iron and as relentless as fate. There 
can be but little doubt that in the hands of zealous 
and able devotees of a creed a great deal may be 



10 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

accomplished; and yet mere dogma seems to be a 
poor rallying cry with which to summon young men 
to abandon the comforts of a civilized life and take 
up the hardships and denials of a missionary calling. 
Then, too, love of sect may not be an ineffective 
motive. The glory which may come to a particular 
body of Christians from the work it has accomplished 
in foreign lands, the satisfaction of extending the 
dominion over which the banner of a sect may float, 
will not unfrequently call forth lavish gifts from 
those who are bent on strengthening the organism of 
their party, and will even lead zealots into a service 
of toil and trial. 

One can scarcely believe that, when the most suc- 
cessful missions are carefully analyzed, it will be 
found that their real foundations are made of material 
so unsubstantial and temporary. On the contrary, it 
will be found that success in every great mission has 
been due to making the Christ of the apostles the 
living centre. In so far as men have deviated from 
that, they have found their labors unsatisfactory and 
sterile. The mere effort to increase the membership 
of an organism, or to put into the breast of a pagan 
an idea which belongs to the realm of Christian 
thought, is unfitted to command the best energies of 
a true soul. The missionary must be an ambassador 
of the Elder Brother, making a tender of his friend- 
ship and sympathy to those who need them by reason 
of their ignorance, degradation, and sin, and through 
that tender seek to bind them to the heart of God. 
This is a dignified service, and one that cannot fail 



THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSION. 11 

to call forth the enthusiasm and command the loyal 
and devoted feelings of every man whose life is 
under the sway of the highest impulses. 

This is the need of all the great missionary move- 
ments of the present time. Not a few of them need 
to be reconstructed on the basis of the apostolic idea 
and practice.* Those who are directing them should 
feel that God has put into their hands Christianity in 
its largest meaning and most comprehensive power ; 
and that they are to preserve and promulgate it as a 
living, healing, and recreative force. It cannot be 
that men fulfil their obligations in so grave a matter 
when they try to urge it forward on the basis of 
dogma, as a system of divinity, as a scheme or plan, 
which, however learned and wise, must still partake 
of our human imperfections. The only way to evan- 
gelize and convert the world is, not by dogma, but 
by fact. In Christianity we have a great body of 
facts, and we need not seek to go beyond these. The 
fact which is central and of overwhelming importance 
is the fact of Christ, — Christ, too, so related to man, 
and so filled with the living spirit, that without the 
slightest exaggeration it may be affirmed that God is 
in him, reconciling the world unto himself. If the 
churches of to-day would work according to the most 
approved historic models, they must not forget that 
what gave to St. Paul such matchless and untiring 
energy, and what made all the movements which 
radiated from him well-nigh irresistible, was this fact 
of Christ, — Christ the wisdom of God and the power 
of God, the express image of the Father's person, in 



12 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; 
the mediator between God and man, the reconciler 
and healer, the ever living and indestructible, the 
constant source of life and strength to men, the head 
of the race, holding the same relation to the great 
body of humanity that the husband holds to the wife, 
that the head holds to the other members of the 
physical organism ; the crucified Saviour, and also the 
risen and glorified friend of man, whose intercessions 
are unceasingly made in our behalf, and by whose 
effectual ministrations neither death, nor life, nor 
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things pres- 
ent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor 
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from 
the love of God. 

In the realm of ideas this is the grandest idea. It 
meets every demand of the highest and profoundest 
thought. No wonder that Sir William Hamilton, 
who had exhausted the literature of philosophy, 
should have affirmed that St. Paul's plummet had 
reached a deeper sounding than any other writer's. 
Indeed, in whatever direction the mind turns, it 
cannot get beyond nor add anything to this vast 
spiritual conception. Moreover, this conception is a 
missionary conception. If you accept it you are, by 
the very terms of your thought, carried into mission- 
ary work. The logic is irresistible. At least, so far 
as thought goes it is impossible to avoid this conclu- 
sion. It were well, therefore, if the churches could 
be taught to think in this fashion ; if they could be 
induced to exclude from their minds the conviction 



THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS. 13 

that the universe has been constructed on a partial 
plan, and that there is constriction and limitation in 
the methods by which it is regulated and controlled; 
if they could have at least a glimmer of the vastness of 
the scheme of things, and be made to feel the closeness 
of the contact and relation of God to all through his Son 
Jesus Christ, we should have an intellectual stimulus 
to the work which the world has not felt for centuries. 
But I do not forget that great missions are not 
born out of logic alone. However essential logic 
may be as an initiative and instigator, it is not the 
mainspring of the impulse which leads men to under- 
take the hardest and most repulsive tasks, and even 
to face martyrdom without a tremor. The attribute 
of the soul which puts all others into subordination 
is love. The love of Christ constraineth us. I can 
do all things through Christ strengthening me. We 
are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 
This love, too, must be wholly without limitation. 
It must not be conditioned on any facts of human 
experience. It must not be restricted in its opera- 
tion by ignorance, unbelief, character, habit, nor 
actual sin. I am aware that many eminent lights of 
the church think otherwise ; that they believe and 
teach that the nerve of missions consists in a love 
that is constricted, confined, and conditioned after the 
narrowest and meanest of all human conceptions. 
But I am persuaded that these learned doctors of to- 
day have read the New Testament 

"With averted look, 
1 Spelling it backward like a Hebrew book." 



14 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

And from them I appeal without fear of impeachment 
to the Apostle to the Gantiles, and to those efforts of 
the primitive church which, in three short centuries, 
swept the paganism of the empire almost out of exist- 
ence, and supplanted the eagles of Rome with the 
banner of the cross. Unless the greatest historic 
examples are misleading, unless the key on which 
the New Testament is strung is wholly false, the 
motive which bears down all others, which is abso- 
lutely irresistible, is love. Men are swept by it as 
the forest is swept by a tornado. They go forth in 
the might of it after the alien and the outcast, not 
because they are in peril, but because they are alien 
and outcast; not to preserve from a future doom, 
however terrible, but to lift from present degrada- 
tion ; not to substitute a correct theory for supersti- 
tion and error, but to make known to men the 
friendship of Jesus, and to bring them into actual 
participation of it. They go as the shepherd goes 
after the stray lamb, that it may not be devoured by 
an evil beast, and that the flock may be complete. 
They go as the father goes to embrace the returning 
prodigal, that the family circle may be unbroken and 
that his yearning affection may be satisfied. They 
go as the soldier goes to battle, with a song on his 
lips, ready to die, if only through his death the coun- 
try may live and posterity be blessed. In all their 
going they are sustained by the living presence of 
their Master, from whose lips they hear the words 
forever: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least 
of these ye have done it unto me. Well done, good 



THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS. 15 

and faithful servants, enter into the joy of your 
Lord." 

The logic of all this is that the Universalist Church 
should be the most eager to engage in missionary 
work. That it has not appeared to be so, has con- 
founded some men who have accepted the Universal- 
ist theory without joining the Universalist organism. 
To those who have been born and reared within this 
organization, there may be a satisfactory explanation 
of the attitude of our church. We may claim that 
the missionary spirit has never been wanting among 
us ; that in fighting for our very existence, in build- 
ing our churches and founding our colleges, in caus- 
ing the light to shine in darkness, we have been as 
truly moved by the missionary impulse as any church 
in Christendom. We may even claim that our great 
leaders, Murray and Ballou, were as completely filled 
with the missionary motive as any who have walked in 
the steps of St. Peter and St. Paul. But we may no 
longer repose upon our past. We have laid the foun- 
dations of a great church. We have swept the chief 
obstacles from our path. We have lighted the lamp 
which now illumines all hearts. But we will not 
rest here. Ours is the flag that is to conquer the 
world. That we may continue to grasp this sceptre, 
we must now go forth and help to gather the nations 
into the fold of God. This is the motive of our 
present missionary efforts in foreign lands. 



16 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 



II. 

THE POSSIBILITIES OE MISSION WORK IN 
THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 



BY C. ELLWOOD NASH, D.D. 



My notion is that that subject was meant to be 
written with what printers call a " screamer" at the 
end, and that my business here is to emphasize, vin- 
dicate, perhaps to flourish the hopes now brightening 
the horizon of our beloved church. 

It is a grateful assignment, and a wholesome one. 
The dear doleful croaker, who, like the other poor, is 
always with us, has kept us adequately alert to the 
zmpossibilities that balk our dreams. We know well 
enough — if not rather too well — the peculiar and 
stupendous resistances which the Universalist Church 
has encountered, and which excuse the slowness of 
its growth. The inveterate prejudice, the shallow 
superstition, the social ambition, the business expedi- 
ency which have pushed with all their force against 
our advance, and still make it a merit to just about 
hold our own (!) — we are not apt to get heedless of 
these for want of rehearsal. With such and so ample 
a weight of ballast, imbedded in the very ribs and 
keelson, we may venture, I think, to shake out a little 




C. ELLWOOD NASH, D.D. 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 17 

more sail. For ballast after all, essential as it is in 
its place, is not good for much as motive power. 
And wind, though naturally puffy, has at least this 
virtue, that it does move. I do not insist that we are 
carrying too many "pigs" in the hold, but I am con- 
vinced that plenty of canvas and a stiff breeze are 
what we now most need to guarantee our voyage. So, 
then, whatsoever things are inspiriting, whatsoever 
things are strengthening, if there be any capacities, if 
there be any enthusiasms, if there be any opportuni- 
ties, if there be any possibilities, let us think on these 
things. 

By "mission work" I understand to be meant, 
specifically, root work, foundation work, the work of 
evangelization, of conversion, work that delights par- 
ticularly to go pioneering, to reclaim the wilderness, 
to start the raw material of civilization, of salvation, 
on its way towards the finished product. Current 
usage differentiates the phrase from the ordinary 
routine of church administration. There it suggests 
at times a certain agony of endeavor to apply and 
actualize the gospel, a hand-to-hand struggle with 
the "prince of this world "in his own favorite and 
least disputed domain. The "missionary" magnifies 
his office and evinces the fulness of his self-surrender 
by choosing to operate on the lower and less privi- 
leged levels, among savages, the ignorant, the profli- 
gate, the depraved ; by a kind of audacity in the use 
of direct and unconventional methods ; most of all by 
a spirit of courageous consecration, of thorough aban- 
donment, which seeks rather than avoids danger, pri- 



18 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

vation, exile. He is not his own, he is bought with 
a price, he feels himself " under orders." Aplomb is 
in his carriage, and in his heart the fire of a crusade. 
He combines the knight with the saint. His glory is 
to be "a soldier of the cross," and the heavier and 
more voluntary his cross the more he glows with the 
joy of service. 

Be not alarmed. This description is of a type, and 
a type is always an extreme ! Doubtless this sort of 
"mission work" will be thought too thoroughgoing, 
too Christlike, for average imitation. But it may 
serve to save us from committing the complacency of 
protesting, as some have done, that " all the work 
of the Universalist Church has been ' mission work.' ' 
True, of course, in a sense, this boast simply obscures 
an impressive distinction. The activities of our 
church have been legitimate and salutary ; its rec- 
ord is nobly honorable. Like other sects, we have 
preached the word, folded such sheep as we could 
gather, administered the ordinances, and in the varied 
exercise of the pastoral function sought to be true to 
the faith once for all delivered to the saints. We 
have been able to convince some of error and some 
of sin. On a scale of amazing vastness the influ- 
ence of our mild and tender gospel, though snubbed 
and ostracized, has made temperate the torrid and 
the frigid zones of mediaeval theology. The earlier 
preachers of Universalism in America were a heroic 
pioneer band, who braved and suffered much for the 
hope that was in them. But since we attained a 
more orderly denominational life we have largely 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 19 

remitted that original mode of frontier operation, 
and have gradually settled into a comfortable and 
unambitious regime, finding it pleasant to enjoy the 
things we have rather than be nervously greedy for 
others we know not of. At present very little " mis- 
sion work," in the e very-day significance of the 
phrase, is being done or attempted by us. Honor to 
the few exceptions! But as a church we have yet 
to show our mettle and our power along that line. 
Thank God for the Calebs multiplying among us, 
who see in that direction our land of promise, who 
have the foresight and the audacity to say, " Let us 
go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to 
overcome it." 

It is not, however, to be understood that mission 
work in the Universalist Church must be work exclu- 
sively in the slums or among wild men of Australia 
or "the dark continent." A small and "despised 
sect," an impugned doctrine, can seldom force them- 
selves into favor by vigor and enthusiasm alone : there 
is need of system, of organization, in order to solidify, 
to utilize, to publish the success which wins more 
success. Our business is with both high and low. 
A primary test of our disposition and capacity to 
apply the gospel to "all sorts and conditions of 
men " will be found in the measure and results 
of our efforts to multiply centres of influence, to 
build for our faith a pulpit, and establish a fomenta- 
tion of ideas in every city, town, and hamlet of the 
land, as well as over the borders and across the seas. 
Mission work for us is to make a valiant, thoroughly 



20 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSION'S. 

concerted, never-s ay-die campaign — not a single 
sally, nor a haphazard succession of guerilla raids 
— for victory : the victory of Universalism as a faith 
over all meaner interpretations, as a life over sin in 
its worst forms. In a word, church-extension, if 
founded on apostolic principles and pressed with the 
spirit of a crusade, using calculation indeed, but de- 
pending even more, far more, on "the dynamics of 
faith," is our true programme for mission work. 

Such mission work the Universalis t Church must 
do or perish. A temporar}^ stay of judgment, a pit- 
tance of toleration while its structures disintegrate, 
is the utmost fate will grant to a "has-been " church. 
A church no longer growing is already moribund. 
It may command a certain tenderness for the sake 
of what it was or tried to be ; but its room is needed 
for active enterprises, and it will "have to go." Now, 
mission work is the synonymn of growth, the evi- 
dence of life and the root of more life, the replen- 
isher of waste material, and the gatherer of enlarging 
powers. To doubt a church's possibility of self-ex- 
pansion is to cast suspicion on its title to existence. 
And whether that possibility be mighty or meagre 
depends upon its capacity to be of use to the world. 

Our theme, then, thus sifted and focused, comes to 
this: What are the "possibilities" of propagating or- 
ganized Universalism ; of adapting its ministries to 
the needs of "many men of many minds ; " of bring- 
ing it to the front as a life-force, to give shape to 
affairs, both public and private ; of popularizing the 
doctrine and crystallizing its regenerated products 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 21 

into a mighty and magnificent machine, a sort of 
"universal" implement of evangelization, — into a 
great church, which implies also a "big church "? 

We may assume at the outset, as the fixed verdict 
of history, science, and reason, that no church grows 
large and powerful, no philosophy wins wide accept- 
ance, unless they somehow deserve to, unless they 
meet a want and render a service. Here "natural 
selection" reigns untrammelled and relentless: for 
organizations are inevitably selfish; no sentiment of 
pity or benevolence tempers the tournament in which 
their rival claims are adjusted vi et armis. Fitness 
commands prevalence, — not necessarily moral or in- 
tellectual superiority, but availability, adaptedness 
to the situation. Chance, artifice, Jesuitism, play but 
a short-lived part. It is, indeed, a pleasing delusion, 
with which cowards, weaklings, and sluggards solace 
themselves, that the world is duped in the selection 
of its pets, and that they are left to mope in neglect, 
not for want of parts, but of a patron. The world, 
however, is no fool, though seldom truly wise. It 
takes what it fancies, and what it does not fancy it 
leaves alone. Is the world to blame if it buries with- 
out a headstone the "mute, inglorious Miltons" who 
failed to sing ? Let Milton sing his divine song, and 
this same world, facile jade that she is, though she 
disdain him at first, will dance to the music at last 
which is really musical. 

Let us start here with confidence. Success belongs 
to those who achieve it. Let us not whine about 
"our special problems." None can be the butt of 



22 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

fortune save those who cringe to fortune. Obstacles 
confront every forward movement. They are a chal- 
lenge to heroism, not a summons to surrender. They 
test the genuineness of conviction and the sincerity 
of consecration ; when well sustained they give bal- 
ance and momentum to a cause, as a bird's poise and 
self-command in the air depend upon the downward 
pull of gravitation and the resistance of the atmos- 
phere against which it smites its wings. The lists 
are open to us in the hospitable arena of Progress, 
and every knight in Christendom is invited to show 
his valor and his skill. Do we doubt that in arms 
and in armor we excel them all? Upon our art, 
then, upon our keenness of vision and energy of 
stroke, upon our ardor and endurance, will depend 
the issue. May the best cause win ! 

If, now, it is a trustworthy statement of the prin- 
ciple of success, that is, of growth and power, to say 
that success comes by law, not by favor, that it must 
be earned, and that its prime condition is service, the 
crucial question under our topic is : — 

WHAT IS THE UNIVEESALIST CHURCH PEEPAEED 
TO DO FOE THE WOELD? 

Which of its varied needs is she fitted to answer? 

The natural, the spontaneous reply of a chorus of 
voices to this bull's-eye interrogatory would be, We 
have the truth, the real gospel. We stand ready, and 
we feel qualified, to offer reassurance to minds rent 
by doubts ; to unriddle much of life's most puzzling 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 23 

mystery; to give comfort, cheer, guidance, to all. 
Our faith is revelation al ; it is rational ; it is inspira- 
tional ; it is sunny, though serious ; it harmonizes the 
providences of God and the faculties of man; it is 
democratic ; it anticipates and allows for progress ; 
it embodies the genius of this best age the world 
has had ; it welcomes science, evolution, even revo- 
lution in its place, while religiously holding fast to 
the heritage of past uplifts, — in a word, it " meets 
the needs of man both for time and for eternity." 
Could any service be greater than to equip the world 
with such a faith ? 

The confident tone with which this answer would 
be given springs from the entirely just assumption 
that human nature needs and is seeking a true faith. 
After a perfect philosophy, however hopelessly, the 
mind is forever doomed to aspire. And not as a 
mere gymnastic for our wits are we thus driven 
to court the sphinx ; the passion of inquiry has its 
root in the sense that the unknown is none the less 
the actual, and that our fortunes lie at the mercy of 
its hidden play. That one hypothesis chases another 
on the stage of thought proves not the futility but 
the activity of the quest. That no man's theory is 
demonstrable only shows the infinite scope and vari- 
ety of the problems. Deep as the nature of man, and 
urgent as the perplexities of his experience, is the 
demand for "more light." Whoever can supply that 
demand may count upon the world's ultimate homage. 

That Universalism is such a faith as the world 
needs and is seeking I, at least, have no doubt at 



24 OUR WORD AND WORE FOR MISSIONS. 

all. Without raising any idle and irritating ques- 
tions as to its "finality" or its all-inclusiveness, I 
confess that I do anticipate its ultimate acceptance 
as (in outline at any rate) the universal religion. 
The rapidity with which its cardinal and character- 
istic canons, flouted for centuries, are being invested 
with axiomatic force in common reasoning, augurs 
nothing short of complete triumph, and that perhaps 
presently. How will it fare with the Universalist 
Church in that immense transformation ? 

Let us analyze a little. When we announce our 
readiness to give to the world " the truth as it is in 
Jesus," we imply two things : (1.) That we have not 
only grasped this truth as a scheme of thought, but 
have tested it, absorbed it in our own life, and so are 
in position to vouch for it and illustrate it experi- 
mentally. (2.) That we understand the problem of 
"distribution" as distinct from that of production, 
and are provided with the system and the apparatus 
for getting our ideas to and into men. Here there is 
occasion for honest self-examination. 

A new faith that does not first visibly touch and 
transfigure the life of its founder, how can it hope to 
commend itself to the sober second-thought of men ? 
They will say to him : Physician, heal thyself. The 
primary test of a faith is its power to inspire faith : 
faith in one's own faith is the core condition of 
conquest. Does the Universalist Church believe in 
Universalism ? Is it " saturated with its own princi- 
ples " ? This is an ungracious question, but to ask 
it faithfully of ourselves may forestall a less kind 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 25 

probing by others. It is a favorite remark with us 
that men of differing creed do not truly believe what 
they profess. Could that possibly be said of us too ? 

We have long since agreed that Universalism is 
not to mean merely a dogma of destiny ; that it is a 
full and comprehensive theory as to beginnings as 
well as endings, relating also the present to both 
past and future, and interpreting life as it unfolds 
by universal principles. It is a religion to bind the 
conscience, fire the heart, purify the judgment, and 
introduce men here and now to the eternal veri- 
ties. The God whose love by and by will guard his 
offspring from evil, so guards them now. The happi- 
ness of holiness, which is to constitute heaven heav- 
enly, would so constitute this mundane sphere if 
given a chance. The present is pregnant with all 
the future; "God is in his heaven;" ineffable love 
wraps us round and whispers its passion in our ears : 
up, Soul, and enter into thy joy ! 

To actually believe the old dogmas, we have been 
often and justly told, would wither the natural affec- 
tions, fill the mind with horror, unseat the reason, 
and bring the chaos of madness or despair. To actu- 
ally believe the doctrines of Universalism, I should 
say, must raise the spirit to an ecstasy, almost a 
delirium of " joy unspeakable and full of glory." To 
entertain those sublime faiths coldly, calculatingly, 
would seem as impossible as to look at the sun with- 
out blinking. What ! Is God our Father? Are we 
now his sons, sharing his nature, and prerogatived to 
exercise his functions ? Is his secret with those who 



26 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

reverence him, and may we dwell in his hiding-place, 
and abide under his shadow? Is he now hovering us 
as a hen her chickens, and counting the very hairs of 
our heads in the fondling of a mother's affection? 
Is it our privilege to give him our hearts, to have 
him take up his abode within us, to live close to him 
day by day, and to grow into his likeness through 
infinite progressions ? And is it the significance of 
life, that he is schooling us to the use of our powers, 
refining us by sorrows, and hardening our fibres by 
discipline, that we may have the whole creation at 
our disposal, and enjoy it in heightened ratios for- 
ever? Do we assent to these overwhelming truths, 
and are we unstirred by them ? Do we preach them 
and hesitate to practise them? Do we insist that 
heaven on earth is a feasible thing, while indulging 
an earthly tinge in our very dreams of heaven ? 

If the Universalist Church were really possessed 
by Universalism, I think the world would soon be 
at its feet. We should then be marked as having 
"been with Jesus." The witness of example would 
convince even the stupid and stubborn. The face of 
Moses shining from his audience with the Most High 
gives him more authority than his tablets of graven 
stone. It is not enough that we be " as good as 
our neighbors ; " we should be as much brighter and 
mightier as our thought is brighter and grander. 
And only in the measure that we can say, We speak 
that we do know, and testify that we have seen, are 
we really qualified to teach the world our truth. 

Universalism is the coming religion. But it is 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 27 

not coming solely nor chiefly by the quickening of 
wits and the diffusion of intelligence. Its great ex- 
pounders and apostles are rather the hearts that have 
caught fire from the divine fire, and the lives that 
radiate Christlikeness among the dingy scenes of 
time. Do not understand me to deny or depreciate 
the necessity for an intellectual basis of religion. I 
am assuming that basis as belonging to our faiths, 
and emphasizing, as Joseph Cook loves to jingle it, the 
insufficiency, but not the inefficiency, of such a basis. 
I am only declaring the truism that life is more than 
truth; that character as a whole is greater than any 
one factor in character, though that factor be reason 
itself. 

I said above that another promise is also involved 
in our offer to endow the world with an adequate 
faith. It is one thing to have grain in the bin ; it is 
another to get it to market and find a purchaser. 
The entire complex problem of transportation is im- 
plied. It is not always the man who knows most 
who makes the best teacher. A degree of mother- 
wit and a personality are required. In order to 
command a hearing for its new great thought the 
Universalist Church must be not only a student, but 
a master of methods. How are we fixed on that 
score ? 

First of all, have we a clearly conceived policy ? 

There are four or five programmes of propagandism 
to choose between : — 

(a.) A rigorous, intellectual type is approved by 



28 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

some. It proposes a church, of culture, of pastors 
given to specialties in science or literature, to lec- 
tures, to scholarship, of pews occupied by a studious, 
investigating class, or at least by inquisitive minds, 
proudly wearing the Athenian badge. It sets its 
hope on education, on the dissemination of thought, 
and the awakening of reason. On the whole, it dis- 
trusts emotion as the fever of weak natures, and 
utterly declines to employ any sort of ad captandum 
style that may win the will in advance of the judg- 
ment. Its mood is dominated not so much by the 
passion of learning as by a theory of evolution by en- 
lightenment alone. In general, it is an earnest, clear- 
visioned programme, and by no means an unfruitful 
one. 

The church which shows the mightiest grasp of 
thought-questions is bound to command a proportion- 
ate influence, sooner or later. But there is a handicap. 
Whether it be that absorption in intellectual inquiries 
leaves the other sympathies to wither in neglect ; or 
whether it be that a predilection for such inquiries 
argues a corresponding indisposition for reckoning 
with other factors in man's manifold character, the 
fact is, I think, that conspicuous philosophical or 
thought tendencies or aptitudes are seldom found in 
combination with similarly striking capacity for the 
other functions by which a church ministers to human 
needs. 

The influence of such a body of readers, thinkers, 
writers, critics, is of course out of all proportion to 
its numbers. It may be said, if that is a comfort, 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 29 

that the intellectual denomination preaches to the 
preachers, and teaches the scholars of other denomi- 
nations, through whom at second-hand or third-hand 
it finally gets to the multitude. But numbers, popu- 
larity, it does not attain. As a mission worker in the 
sense given above, it is not a marked success. 

Is this the kind of church ours is, or is to be? I 
think not. Our genius is not of that sort. Our his- 
tory does not run that way. Our standing, what we 
have, is not based on our culture. I do not say this 
with any glee, for thought-talent is a glory which no 
sane mind could despise. But the fact appears to 
me to be that in this sphere, while by no means un- 
honored, we are not destined to stride before and 
show the way to our fellows. We are not now at 
the head of that column, and there is no reason to 
flatter ourselves that we belong there. Nor could we 
commit a stupider blunder than to abandon our proper 
speciality, and strain after the unattainable. We 
ought, of course, to do our best as students and educa- 
tors. But it is possible to over-emphasize that duty, 
and we have more than once been drawn near the 
perilous edge by a one-sided counsel. 

(&.) Churches have won power and popularity by 
social pretensions. We are forced to recognize that 
influence as a sad commentary on human sincerity 
and courage, when we see those who confess their 
sympathy with our creed, wooing prestige and high 
connection by "bending the pregnant hinges of the 
knee " at other altars. But the way out is not to 
essay to set up a competing court. Social eminence 



30 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

comes, indeed, by purchase; the price is antecedent 
success. The flock of fawners and flatterers will 
come fast enough upon the heels of victory. Per- 
haps they would not be of much use to us before 
that. No ; we must win by an appeal to higher im- 
pulses, and regard this mania for "society" as only 
accenting the need of a true life from above. 

(c.) There is, again, the ceremonial and sacerdotal 
type of administration. That it does satisfy a crav- 
ing it would be folly to question. Is it a wholesome 
appetite ? Partly, I think. It is difficult in advanced 
life to recall true impressions of the tastes and pro- 
pensities of childhood or youth. This is so also of 
the race. " First the natural, then the spiritual." 
But the spiritual " man " is in danger of under-es- 
timating the want that still survives in others for 
" childish things." A picturesque mode of worship, 
a concrete presentation of truth by symbols and pos- 
tures, a breviary that puts words into the mouth of 
the many whose thought-organs have hardly yet be- 
gun to operate, this has its use. The Friends go to 
the other extreme, refusing all adventitious aids in a 
worship which is blasphemy, unless offered " in spirit 
and in truth." We may like this way better, but 
we must know that few men are at present ripe for 
it. Of the purely priestly type we can make little 
use, though even that may be " good for babes." It 
is not our cue to coddle the sense of weakness and 
dependence by interposing a proxy between the dev- 
otee and his God, and tempering the divine benison 
by its bestowal at second-hand. But neither is it 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 31 

our cue to pretend to a spiritual elevation which we 
have not attained, which certainly many to whom we 
minister have not attained, and to try to deal with 
"infants in Christ" as if they were full-grown men. 
In a word, there is nothing opposite to the genius of 
Universalism in an enriched ceremonial, and we have 
doubtless much to learn on that line. The conquer- 
ing Universalist Church will not scruple to stoop to 
the world's level in order to lift it up. But it has 
no peculiar call that I can make out to take the lead 
in what is already so well overdone by more than one 
" big church." 

(<i.) If we do not find the policy suited to our 
genius in a purely intellectual propaganda, nor in 
affecting the prestige of "society," nor in the cruci- 
fix and prayer-book, perhaps we mean to get our mes- 
sage to mankind by " inspirational " power. This 
does not mean the same as emotional excitement. 
Still, its touch upon the life is through the sensibili- 
ties. Particularly it appeals to " the spirit in man " 
by the mercies and the love of Him who is the Father 
of spirits. It aims to excite a worthy response to 
the divine passion. Its ministry is in a way impres- 
sional. Its ideal is not so much clear thought, as 
strong, true, noble feeling, but this founded of course 
on previously acknowledged facts. It seeks to com- 
fort by a rehearsal of the wisdom and affection of 
God, and by the hopes which the nature of things 
engenders. It seeks to cheer by recalling the vital- 
ity of justice, the certainty of triumph for righteous- 
ness. It calls the worshipper in by the fraternal 



32 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

fervor of its invitation, and sends him forth renewed 
in courage and resolve to put to use the life that 
now is. Such a church must be a church of prayer, 
and, I think, of prayer-meetings. It must maintain 
a hallowed sanctuary, and keep its doors open as 
the gates of heaven, that are never shut. It must 
magnify the claims of the spirit, and exact heavy 
service from its members. It must rest in apostolic 
principles, and count it a joy to be found worthy to 
suffer for the dear Name's sake. It will be a hive of 
industry, but may not attain to the variegation of 
" the institutional " church. In brief, its ambition 
will be to make the divine Shechinah available for 
succor and inspiration to all who visit its temple. 

Is this to be our great work? With our gracious 
gospel in our hands, are we to make it graphic and 
vital to men by the eloquence of an exhibition of its 
spirit and power in a church bursting with sublime 
enthusiasm ? So that men will come in to our fire 
as out of a blizzard? I confess that this seems to 
me wholly germane to the revelation of God and 
God's ways which we hold in trust. If not so, I do 
not know how we are to be the almoners of our great 
truth to men. Other doors of usefulness are ajar, 
but they open into limited fields. Other types of 
service are honorable, but they minister each to a 
class. It should be practicable for a faith of such 
universal promise as ours to find a mode of adminis- 
tration equally inclusive. We that proclaim salva- 
tion for all have no right to confine our actual 
sympathies to a part. The inspirational type is for 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVEBSALIST CHURCH. 33 

all alike. It takes men as men, not specifically as 
rich or poor, ignorant or cultured, sinners or saints. 
All are poor, all are ignorant, all are sinners in their 
degree. And it is the sin, the poverty, the ignorance, 
that gives them trouble, not virtue, knowledge, or 
riches. Strength, help, life, every man needs. The 
gospel, truly delivered, gives these. Preach the 
word, the truth of a divine administration now and 
every moment in progress, — wise, gentle, benefi- 
cent, but strict also and persistent. What the world 
needs more than new light is an appreciation of these 
sweet central facts. 

But I do not mean that the pulpit is to do all this 
preaching. Every disciple must be in his turn a 
discipler. Life, each day's behavior, will tell the 
story. He that loves will discover himself. You 
cannot bottle up warmth; it must out. And so the 
true inspirational church will also be a church of 
good works. Indeed, these always go together. It 
makes small difference at which end you begin. 
Get folks to work for God, and they will develop a 
passion for him. Get men to love God through con- 
templation of his goodness, and they will presently 
apply for an appointment to active service. This is 
the evolution of the mission spirit. The inspira- 
tional church is operated on the mission plan all the 
year round. 

Do not imagine I am pleading for bluster and 
" fuss and feathers." I do think that the Salva- 
tion Army and the Methodist camp-meeting have 
something to tell us of the ways of the spirit ; but 



34 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

I fancy Ave can have as warm a fire with less smoke 
and less sputtering. A rational fervor, such as Paul 
felt, such as Jesus felt, inspired, too, by the same 
noble ideals and the same grand picture of God's 
universe, — that is what contains the possibilities of 
growth by pre-eminent serviceableness in the Mas- 
ter's kingdom. 

Three recognized factors enter into the harvest, — 
the seed, that is truth ; the soil, that is human 
nature, whether in its primal elements, or as warped 
and abused by conduct; the sower, that is whoever 
has the message. 

The possibilities of mission work in the Universal- 
ist Church lie in these three factors : — 

1. If our truth be God's truth, no man can gainsay 
or resist it. If our interpretation is right, it invests 
us with the keys of heaven. In the possession of that 
truth we are the cynosure of the universe. Behind 
that truth is the full headway of creation. This is 
the " judgment " which is to be " set on earth " and 
for which the isles are waiting. It must be " the 
power of God unto salvation." It shall " accomplish 
that to which it was sent out." 

This sounds large, but is it not what our position 
and historic claims imply ? Do our pretensions stop 
short of this height? Do we doubt that what we 
teach Jesus taught and died to illustrate ? Have we 
the courage of conviction to believe that the triumph 
of this truth " stands not in the power of men but of 
God " ? 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 35 

If Universalism be true, all possibilities of self- 
propagation are in that fact. It is nothing to say 
that other thoughts have pre-empted the minds of 
men, and that pre-judgment has barred the door of 
appeal. Truth has an eternal right of way. Only 
get it told, give it a voice, men cannot choose but 
hear. Light must enlighten as far as its rays can 
pierce. Lift up the candlestick. With all its array, 
error is but a puny thing. It is most secure when it 
can hide its features behind partial truth. But dark, 
ness vanishes when the light is brought in. . The 
mind is helpless before an obvious fact. Treason to 
light, that is possible. But then the entire nature 
takes up its cause, the universe fights the traitor with 
relentless rigor. The battle is too unequal ; he must 
yield. If we have the truth, as we profess to think, 
if we can succumb to it, and let it use us as its facile 
instruments, our triumphant missions will girdle, will 
occupy the globe ! 

2. The seed then is perfect. What of the soil? 
Are the conditions ripe ? Is the season favorable ? 
Even the best seed will not root on the " highways." 
Nor can we hope for a crop from the surface of a 
"rock." While "thorns" and weeds may thin the 
harvest to pitiful meagreness. Is there any " good 
ground " ? 

Of the opportuneness of the present moment for an 
aggressive liberal campaign, so much has been well 
said by others, that there is little need for analysis 
and evidence here. Surely no one can question that 
all the thought-movement of the age is in our direc- 



36 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

tion. All the new osopliies are affirming our charac- 
teristic faiths. All the new ologies are breathing our 
hopes. Science, literature, reform, even politics, — 
each has caught and prolonged the strain. The 
genius of the age is resolute optimism. And change 
has lost its terrors where so much is continually 
changing. The world is on the qui vive of anticipa- 
tion, ever looking for something better. A degree of 
prejudice remains, like bad air in a hole, but a thor- 
ough ventilation is inevitable in these breezy times. 
Our hour has come. Public attention may be pre- 
occupied, but it is not wantonly withheld. It is not 
because we are hated, but because we are small and 
weak, that we attract no more notice. Certain it is 
that the world will welcome no message opposite to 
ours. Its parliament listens respectfully to all, but 
its sympathies are with the broad, the rational, the 
earnest, the sanguine. Never was soil more hospit- 
able. Unless we distrust the divinity of our message, 
we have no reason to distrust its hearty reception in 
human thought and life when once we boldly " broad- 
cast it o'er the land." 

But there are some who say that our seed will 
thrive only in high latitudes ; that the " natural " 
man is not ripe for it ; that it presumes a certain 
antecedent culture, a measure of enlightenment and 
refinement ; that it is unsuited to " popular campaign- 
ing ; " that our part is to operate in the " finishing- 
room," so to say, receiving there the well-advanced 
product, and putting on the final exquisite touches. 
In plain prose, that our philosophy is so elevated, so 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 37 

profound, so esoteric, that only the intellectually and 
spiritually elite can appreciate it. The "masses" 
want superficiality and claptrap ; they are to be taken 
by noise and theatricals, by sensuous appeals, by ex- 
citements, and other such modus operandi, which is 
quite out of our line. 

Unless this fancy is begotten of an anxiety to find 
a buffer against criticism, or of an unconscious aris- 
tocratic squeamishness about mixing with " the com- 
mon herd," I can hardly account for its existence. 
I do not give it credence, no, not for an instant. 
The truth is, that Universalism is the very simplest, 
most natural, and most intelligible theory of things. 
It includes no complicated mechanism, no affronts 
to common-sense and common experience ; creates no 
deadly antagonisms between the faculties of our 
nature; tells a plain, unvarnished tale that a child 
can understand. As compared with the mysteries 
and self-stultifications of Calvinism, it is transpar- 
ency itself. What is there esoteric in the teaching 
that God is love ; that he is our Father ; that man's 
true life is in loving and obeying him ; that as we sow 
we shall reap, and so on ? Not one legal fiction, not 
one verbal quibble, is necessary to set forth this de- 
scription. Some problems remain and some obscuri- 
ties ; but wherever we have left the beaten track of 
tradition we have emerged into sunlight. Over pre- 
vailing opinions we have every advantage on the score 
of simplicity and intelligibleness. 

But is it not inevitable that Universalist preaching 
should be marked by a certain elegance, a certain fine- 



38 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

ness which lioi polloi do not relish ? Is it possible to 
be true to the genius of our rational faith, and yet get 
down to the plane of " common folks " ? Is it pos- 
sible to give an essentially spiritual religion the pic- 
turesque, concrete, vernacular quality which "takes " 
with the many ? Can we carry it to the slums with 
any chance of winning and holding attention ? 

Well, why not? Is Universalism Christianity? 
If not, what are we here for ? If so, is Christianity 
fitted for popular presentation? Was Jesus a Uni- 
versalist? Was Paul? Did they reach the "com- 
mon people " ? Did they sacrifice the dignity of 
faith to do so ? As a Universalist, what hinders me 
from "getting down " to the fallen, the degraded, the 
simple-minded and shallow ? What but some un- 
worthy ambition to be exclusive and select? What 
but a distaste for "publicans and sinners"? What 
but emptiness of the doctrines and life of the real 
gospel ? What but the fact that I am not serious, 
have been playing at religion? There is no other 
reason why the story may not be uttered in a warm- 
ing, " converting ' ' way ; why it may not pluck the 
wicked "like brands from the burning." The "grace 
of God in our hearts," and a sufficient "zeal for souls," 
will give us the Pentecostal vernacular which reaches 
ail alike. 

It is certain that we shall never be a popular 
church unless we try to be. We have never yet — I 
say it cautiously — tried to be. We have had mis- 
givings about the propriety of such an effort. As to 
the adoption of innovating methods, we are, I think, 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVERSALIS! CHURCH. 39 

the most conservative church in' America to-day. 
The criticism which Christ incurred and braved, that 
he was not particular enough about his fellowships, 
and was lax in his personal habits, we dread that 
more than almost any other. We will not walk in 
slippery places for fear of a humiliating fall. We 
hesitate to speak out lest some one should start a 
laugh against us. This appears to me to belong to 
the present temper of our communion. Who of us is 
not affected by it ? But if we are tongue-tied, Uni- 
versalism is, nevertheless, eloquent. That glorious 
faith is not dependent for a true and potent telling 
upon rhetoric, grammar, a college diploma, an ele- 
gant manner, or any such thing. I do not see why 
the Salvation Army might not use it amid their toot- 
ings and drummings, just as well as the screed of 
rags and patches they do use. And though I say 
again, I do not hope for a Universalist Salvation 
Arnry, at least after General Booth's style, I am con- 
vinced that the church which hesitates in this age to 
break out of the beaten path, in the spirit of Hanni- 
bal, who cried with the ice-clothed Alps before him, 
" I'll find a way or make one ; " the church which 
hangs helplessly to conventional types, and fails to 
strike a popular chord, that church is lost ! 

I have an idea (heretic that I am ! ) that the preach- 
ers who are to carry Universalism to the "common 
people " must come from that level, and be taken in, 
too, without previously extracting the sympathies 
and predilections which Avill make them at home in 
downright mission work. It needs one who has felt 



40 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

the pinch of poverty to enter into the feelings of 
the poor ; an ex-sinner (!) to get hold of the active 
sinners ; not invariably, of course, but commonly. I 
am sometimes sceptical whether the bookish flavor 
imparted by the schools is worth the cost of mother- 
wit, which is often sacrificed to attain it. Sure I am 
that no one type of pulpit or pastoral ministration 
will make our church efficient on all the lines of its 
opportunity. The danger is not in too much learn- 
ing, but in an inflexible, one-featured policy, which, 
not daring, or not desiring, to become " all things to 
all men," becomes less and less to any man. 

I have thus tried to show that the possibilities of 
mission work in the Universalist Church are limitless- 
in so far as they rest either in the truth we have to 
offer, or in the receptivity of mankind towards that 
truth. If any limits exist they pertain to our pre- 
paredness for a competent administration of this re- 
sistless truth. I have indicated my thought that 
pre-eminent service is not to be expected from us in 
the way of a mere intellectual leadership, nor yet as 
fashion-makers in the " social " arena, nor as exhibi- 
tors of ritual or sacerdotalism, though in each of 
these regions we may play a respectable part. I 
have confessed my conclusion that our great- rdle is 
that of an inspirational centre, an interpreter of 
dogma by life, which shall at once convince, instruct, 
and invigorate. Upon our capacity for this depend 
our possibilities of mission work. 

We can do anything we have a mind to do. A 



MISSION WORK IN UNIVERSALIS! CHURCH. 41 

divine message and a needy world afford us bound- 
less opportunity. But neither the divinity of the 
message nor the need of the Avorld will of itself 
crown us with any laurels. A thorough-going dis- 
cipleship to our own doctrines, — that is the one 
requisite. Cities and villages, yes, nations, are wide 
open to our entrance. Faith and heroism must show 
the way. We shall not win by calculation, but by 
consecration. There is no danger of going to ex- 
tremes : there are no extremes of love and sonship 
to God. And let us bear in mind that error ear- 
nestly pushed, with the abandon of unquestioning 
trust and fearless loyalty, is a much more effective 
combination for practical power with men than specu- 
lative truth coldly held and feebly championed. 

The hope I have for the future of our cause is 
based upon evidence of a growing perception of these 
laws of success among us, and a manifest and rapid 
rise of our spiritual temperature. We are warming 
to the work. We are discovering our mission. We 
are being penetrated with the significance of our own 
creed. We are gaining ground. I believe Ave are to 
show undreamed-of capacity in the direction of a prac- 
tical incarnation of the true religion. Awakening 
activities on every side betray the quicker pulsation 
of our denominational life. The tides of God are 
rising. Room, room, for the larger inspiration ! We 
shall yet see of the travail of our souls and be 
satisfied. 

Bkooklyn, N.Y., January, 1894. 



42 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 



Ill 

OUR WORK IN TH1WEST. 



BY REV. R. A. WHITE. 



The opportunity and duty of the Universalist 
Church is in the West ; that is, in that unconquered 
country west of the Mississippi River. Missionary 
opportunity is not of course exhausted in the East, but 
it is limited. Universalism has worked that soil for 
a hundred years or more — worked it successfully too. 
Its achievements there in the face of years of bitter 
opposition and religious ostracism constitute a record 
of which we may be justly proud. Universalism is 
native to the East. It was cradled there. Its first 
bitter struggles for recognition were there. So it 
happens that both officially and numerically the chief 
strength of Universalism is in the East. Its publish- 
ing-house is there. Its denominational headquarters 
are there. The officials, both of its General Conven- 
tion and its publishing interests, live, with two excep- 
tions, east of Central New York. The Universalist 
centre of gravity, numerically, is still east of the 
Hudson River. Boston is its hub. 

Slowly the denomination has been throwing its 
forces westward with advancing population. It al- 




REV. R. A. WHITE. 



OUR WORK IN THE WEST. 43 

ready has a firm hold upon the great lake region. 
But into that phenomenally increasing population 
west of the Mississippi, Universalism has done little 
more than throw an advance skirmish line. Ninety- 
five per cent of our church property, ninety-four per 
cent of our church edifices, and ninety per cent of our 
young people's societies, are east of the Mississippi. 
Of our 45,000 families, less than eight per cent, of our 
parishes but twelve per cent, and of our Sunday- 
school enrolment, but seven per cent, is west of it. 
The majority of these Western parishes are small and 
in small towns. Leave Minnesota and Iowa out of 
the account, with their 1,814 families, and the re- 
mainder averages but twenty-three families to each 
parish. That is, exclude two favored border States, 
and but four per cent of all the Universalist families 
in this country is to be found in that vast territory 
west of the Mississippi. Our parishes there, includ- 
ing the two States just excluded, are, all told, but 
122. The Unitarians report but eighty-one. Here is, 
indeed, an unoccupied field for a Universalist propa- 
ganda. The times are ripe for it. The situation 
demands it. Every circumstance in the West throws 
down its challenge to Universalism as one of the 
knights of the liberal faith. There is nothing better 
or more imperative for our church to do than to con- 
centrate its noblest energies upon a conquest of the 
West. 

First, Universalism ought to push into the West 
to seek its own. A great Universalist constituency, 
trained in the mother churches of the East, has for 



44 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

years been scattering itself through the Western cities 
and towns. Every large city west of the Mississippi 
has scores of men and women bearing the Universal- 
ist brand. Their denominational identity is being 
gradually lost. Some drift into, and in the second 
generation are absorbed by, evangelical communions. 
But the greater misfortune is that the majority, hav- 
ing no liberal church to interest them, lose touch with 
religious interests altogether, and join the growing 
army of the unchurched. It would prove no unprofit- 
able task to send missionaries into every large Western 
city, just to find and "round up" everj^ one with the 
Universalist mark on them. 

Second, Universalism ought to concentrate its mis- 
sionary efforts upon the West, on account of the large 
and increasing class of theologically unmoored peo- 
ple which waits the reasonable word of religious in- 
terpretation. A few of them are still in evangelical 
communions, enduring a gospel they cannot accept. 
The great majority are in apparent revolt against all 
religion, and outside the church altogether. Yet they 
are neither iconoclasts nor scoffers. Among them are 
the brightest and most serious people of the West, 
— lawyers, doctors, teachers, and successful business 
men. They are religiously adrift, not because they 
prefer to be, but because their mental cables have 
been cut by false interpretations. All the religious 
anchors they ever had are left sticking in the mud of 
traditionalism. At heart they are truth lovers, and, 
in a way, truth seekers. Scores turn to almost any 
new statement of belief which promises a mental rest 



OUR WORK IN THE WEST. 45 

ing-place. That theosophy finds followers by the 
hundreds, and that even the Oriental religions are in 
favor with many, finds explanation in part in the 
mental migrations of an unchurched class out in 
search of religion. Spiritualism and ethical culture 
movements are taking deep root in the West for the 
same reason. Something positive to fasten to, the 
healthy mind must have. It is a sickly intellect that 
can feed forever on negations and be satisfied. Those 
who turn from the church to follow these new forms 
of faith, justify their action on the ground that they 
find there a positive form of belief which Christianity, 
as presented to them, does not offer. Better an ar- 
dent theosophist, they say, and rightly so, than a 
mental wandering in the chaos of negations. 

This, briefly, is the situation in the West, — an in- 
creasing class of people religiously adrift, yet in an 
attitude of expectancy. This class is not, to be sure, 
wholly peculiar to the West. The unchurched have 
no geographical preferences. The situation has this 
advantage, that opinions are not so permanently fixed 
in the West as in the East. Even unbelief has little 
more than hardened at the edges. It is receptive of 
new ideas. Its revolt is less against religion than 
against a form of religion. The majority of the un- 
churched of the West have never had the opportunity 
of hearing a reasonable interpretation of Christianity. 
A bright business man came to a Chicago preacher, 
after the sermon, saying, "I had supposed that I was 
an infidel of the worst type. Since hearing the ser- 
mon I am not so sure about it. I never heard reli- 



46 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

gion interpreted that way before." Inquiry revealed 
the fact that he lived in a city beyond the Mississippi 
where there was no liberal church of any kind. He 
had the making of a first-class, ardent, liberal Chris- 
tian in him. This man is a type of thousands in 
every Western community, — ready to accept the 
truth when that truth shall be fitly spoken. 

But the evangelical church of the West has no 
acceptable gospel for such people. Their divorce 
from the traditional communions is final. Strange as 
it may seem, Western orthodoxy has less elasticity 
than the Eastern type. In the midst of the freest 
and most liberal life in the world, the old line churches 
remain illiberal. The liberal church alone has an ac- 
ceptable word for the unchurched of the West. If 
this class is saved to the Christian church at all, it 
must be reached by some form of liberal Christianity. 
A broad, tolerant Universalism, freed from all creedal 
obscurations, can, if it will, carry an attractive and 
acceptable message to the wavering belief and unbe- 
lief of the West. Ability and opportunity become 
duty. 

Third, Universalism ought to advance its forces 
into the West because population is shifting that way, 
and the many problems of social life in which the 
church is deeply interested are shifting with it. The 
centre of population of this country is already in In- 
diana, and is pushing westward at the rate of eighty- 
two feet every twenty-four hours, or five miles each 
year. This means that the vast territory west of the 
Mississippi, containing two and one half acres to 



OUB WORK IN THE WEST. 47 

every one east of it, is rapidly filling with people. 
Twenty-five per cent of our population is there al- 
ready. This tide of westward moving life will be 
accelerated rather than retarded. A constantly in- 
creasing stream of population will be attracted from 
the congested centres of the East and the Old World 
by the matchless wealth of Western resources. It 
cannot be many years before the centre of population 
will be at the Mississippi. When that happens the 
sceptre of national destiny will have passed into the 
hands of the great West. A wise missionary policy 
ought, so far as possible, to anticipate the time when 
the population west of the Mississippi is as great as 
the population east of it. We should be among the 
pioneers, enter the country, stake out our claim and 
be ready for business. 

But with this rapidly shifting population, shift all 
the human problems in which the liberal church is 
intensely interested. The time is not far distant, if 
it is not already here, when many problems heretofore 
belonging almost exclusively to the East must be 
solved for the West at least, if not for the country, 
on Western ground. The problem of the "new edu- 
cation" must with the rapid growth of educational 
institutions be solved for the West in the West. The 
question of capital and labor is shifting into the West 
with the rapid concentration of capital and the growth 
of commerce and industry. The West may yet solve 
the labor question for the whole country. When the 
centre of population reaches the Mississippi the West 
will have fifty per cent of the Congressional represen- 



48 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

tatives instead of less than twenty-five per cent, as at 
present. Then the question of honest government, 
as well as matters of legislation, will be equally in the 
hands of the West. 

Questions of even closer interest to the liberal 
church, and to all churches for that matter, are shift- 
ing into the West with the growth of Western cities. 
The increase of the urban population there savors of 
the marvellous. In 1880 there were but fifteen cities 
of over 20,000 west of the Mississippi. In 1890 there 
were thirty-five. A few examples taken at random 
will serve to indicate the phenomenal growth of 
Western cities. In ten years, that is, from 1880 to 
1890, Omaha increased its population 109,000, or 360 
per cent; Duluth 29,000, or 850 per cent; Pueblo 
21,000, or about 660 per cent; Seattle 39,000, or over 
1,000 per cent ; Dallas 27,000, or over 260 per cent. 
The importance of all this upon the moral conditions 
of the West cannot be over-estimated. It means that 
the social problems peculiar to large cities are fasten- 
ing themselves upon Western life. Questions of 
honest and efficient municipal government, poverty, 
crime, temperance, and the tenement house, intensify 
in cities, if they are not peculiar to them. The West 
is now forced to grapple with all the problems which 
for a century or more have faced the more populous 
East. The evils of Indian massacres, cowboy raids, 
the carouse of the mining-camp, are to be exchanged 
for the more subtle evils of civilization. The moral 
chano-e which is stealing- over the West with the sub- 
stitution of urban life for the nomadic life of its pio- 



OUR WORK IN THE WEST. 49 

neers, is real and significant, not only to the West, 
but to the whole country. The moral destiny of the 
nation is peculiarly in the hands of the West. Given 
a strong, healthy, moral life there a half century from 
now, and the moral strength of the nation will be 
multiplied. Whatever helps mould the life of the 
West will mould the national life. 

These various industrial and social changes must 
be met with moral and spiritual forces. Legislation 
cannot make good men, and without good men the 
solution of the intensifying problems of life in the 
West is hopeless. Into the opened veins of the West 
must be poured an infusion of Christian ethics and 
Christian hope. Every church has a mission to 
Western life. None more so than the Universalist 
Church. None has a better or more hopeful word. 
And nowhere can Universalism say that word to 
better effect than in this plastic, formative life beyond 
the Mississippi. The unsolved questions are easier 
of solution there than in older and more conservative 
communities. They are less in the toils of tradition 
and precedent. Even its immoralities have not yet 
hardened into traditions and fixed forms. Pioneer 
life is usually vicious from impulse rather than from 
calculation. The West is in its impetuous youth, 
with vices enough, yet lacking the cool, deliberate, 
calculating viciousness of older communities. In 
this unformed life Universalism can find a field for 
its largest ambitions, an arena for every unused 
power. In this free atmosphere, unfettered by tradi- 
tions or definitions, Universalism can find its essen- 



50 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

tial self, discover its real power over men. The Uni- 
versalist Church needs the West for the full unfolding 
of its own best destiny. On the other hand, the West 
needs the spiritual and ethical contribution which 
Universalisrn has for it. No richer treasures of truth, 
nor none more needed, can be contributed to Western 
thought than God's fatherhood, man's brotherhood, 
faith in the intrinsic worth of man, the inexorableness 
of moral law, the invulnerability of good, and the vul- 
nerability of evil. Every important circumstance, 
both of need and opportunity, urges the claims of the 
West upon the attention of our church as the chief 
remaining point for an aggressive missionary enter- 
prise. Its rapidly increasing population, presenting 
as it does an unsurpassed field for denominational 
extension, the opportunity it offers, if we will make 
our motive and policy large enough, of helping shape 
the moral and religious future of Western life, might 
well arouse all our latent missionary enthusiasm, and 
enlist our many unused forces. 

Now, for a successful Universalist propaganda in 
the West, several matters of policy are indispensable. 
To be sure policy, alone will not insure success. The 
best missionary policy will fail where there is lack of 
missionary enthusiasm and a consecrated leadership. 
An engine without steam is scarcely less useless than 
an elaborate policy without an unconquerable enthu- 
siasm back of it. Scarcely better, however, is en- 
thusiasm without a wise policy. The missionary 
bird must have both these wings. Clip either and 
its flight is uncertain. Enthusiasm, restless, cyclonic, 



OUR WORK IN THE WEST. 51 

unconquerable, is assumed, then, as the primal neces- 
sity in capturing the West for the liberal faith. Now 
for a few other things, which, if less ethereal than 
enthusiasm, are nevertheless absolutely essential to 
the largest success in Western missions. 

First, and of primal importance, is the selection of 
strategic points. Our church is limited both as to 
money and workers. It is good common-sense to in- 
vest our capital where it will bring the largest and 
quickest returns. To attempt to plant a Universalist 
church in every little town where a half-dozen fami- 
lies ask for it, is not missionary economy. The real 
strategic points of the West are without doubt the 
large cities, or such places as give every promise of 
soon becoming cities. Whatever the missionary mo- 
tive, church extension, truth extension, or institu- 
tional church work among the poorer classes, the 
cities offer points of advantage. In the cities the 
population is massed. The same effort reaches more 
people than in smaller places. The city church, 
through the medium of the daily press, open to all 
bright progressive movements, reaches a vast consti- 
tuency which never sees its doors. There are fewer 
churches per thousand people in the cities than in 
smaller places. The average Western village is 
crowded with competing churches. Six half-starved 
churches struggle for existence where there is room 
but for two. This is sectarianism gone mad. Few, 
if any, of the large cities have churches in proportion 
to the population. Chicago has but one church to 
every 3,600 of its population. If the healthy adults 



52 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

of Chicago should all start for church some Sunday 
morning, at present a situation not probable, the 
churches could not mid them seats. It has already 
been pointed out that in the cities the social and in- 
dustrial problems are most obtrusive. There poverty 
and crime present their worst forms. In the city the 
church is always within arm's length of its greatest 
duty. The smaller towns have their need, no doubt, 
and missionary effort in such localities may sometimes 
be expedient and justifiable. There is some reason 
in the plea that in the smaller places we train a con- 
stituency for the city church, since the population of 
the cities is fed from the villages. But of what use 
to train a constituency for the city church when we 
have no city church. Get the city church first. 
Economy, opportunity, and duty unite in making 
the large cities the chief points of missionary 
advantage. 

For one reason or another Universalism west of 
the Mississippi has avoided rather than sought the 
larger centres of population. Out of 122 parishes, 
there are but ten so far as I know, or about eight per 
cent, in cities of 20,000 inhabitants or over. In two 
of these there is preaching but one-fourth the time, 
leaving practically but eight cities of the size men- 
tioned in which we are doing aggressive work. Our 
Unitarian friends are wiser than we in this matter. 
Twenty-five per cent of their churches west of the 
Mississippi are in cities of over 20,000 inhabitants. 
That is, they are already in at least twenty of the 
great cities there. As for our church, if all our 



OUR WORK IN THE WEST. 53 

energies and money were concentrated upon Western 
cities, we could by no means meet the emergency. 
West of the Mississippi there are no less than twenty- 
six cities of over 20,000 inhabitants, and two of 
19,000 practically unoccupied by Universalism. In 
five of these cities the unbounded enthusiasm of one 
man has within a year or two broken ground in a 
modest way. In those five cities there is no perma- 
nent preaching or aggressive work as yet. Practi- 
cally, therefore, twenty-eight cities in the West, of 
over 19,000 inhabitants, wait our occupancy. If we 
add to this estimate Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, 
thirteen more cities may be included, making west of 
the Ohio Eiver no less than forty-one cities of 19,000 
inhabitants and over, some of them reaching beyond 
the 100,000 mark, which invite our missionary enter- 
prise. In every one of these, with few exceptions, a 
Universalist church could be established and made 
self-supporting in a few years if such work could but 
be made to command the united interest and support 
of our people. 

Again, it must not be overlooked as a very practical 
matter that a special energy and push is necessary in 
the West. The people are impatient of slow and 
trite methods. Everything goes with a rush. Busi- 
ness is conducted on a gigantic scale. The West de- 
lights in enterprise, that is, in a big thing. Whether 
this spirit is a laudable one or not, is not now the 
question. The fact remains that the modest mission, 
hidden around the corner in an obscure hall, will not 
attract much attention in the average Western city. 



54 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

A few faithful souls will always be found to stand 
by, even if the services are held in a barn, and much 
credit belongs to them. But the people of means, 
social standing, and culture, who ought to be reached, 
and must be reached if there is any large measure of 
success, stand aloof from such modest beginnings. 
There is a danger line in modesty, especially in mis- 
sions. I sometimes think we are prone, usually from 
necessity, to cross it. The obscure hall, sometimes 
up one or two flights of stairs, in a hustling wide- 
awake Western city, is the poorest kind of missionary 
policy. The brown-stone front people will have 
nothing to do with it; nor is this the most serious 
thing about it, for the average well-to-do liberal 
family, moving in the cultured and well-to-do society 
of other churches, will have nothing to do with it 
either. We may, indeed, deplore that world spirit 
which refuses to climb two flights of stairs for its 
liberal religion, and prefers to feed on the dry husks 
of orthodoxy, rather than take a more nutritious faith 
on uncushioned seats. Nevertheless, here is the hard 
fact that it shies at the stairs and the hard seats, and 
mission methods might as well bow to the inevitable, 
and bend a little to modern social demands. The 
importance of starting right cannot be overestimated 
— starting in such a way as to give dignity and social 
prestige to the new faith at the outset. It will not 
be in our favor to have it get abroad in the West that 
Universalism is synonymous with a hired hall and a 
sewing-circle. If it must be a hall at first, let it 
be the best and most popular one in the city, a 



OUR WORK IN THE WEST. 55 

place where the best concerts, and every great public 
meeting on matters of importance, are held. Good 
music and good preaching must be provided. The 
first impression is the winning one. If the situation 
demands it, have ushers in dress suits, and the morn- 
ing service printed on the finest cardboard in the 
latest and most approved style of printing. If the 
public will have it so, make the new faith palatable 
by presenting it on a silver salver. 

The mission in a Western city, or in any city for 
that matter, ought to begin in such a way and such 
a place as to attract public attention from the begin- 
ning. Every man, woman, and child ought to know 
within a month that a Universalist movement had 
reached the city to stay. It is a fact that a friend of 
the writer's was to speak at a gathering of Universal- 
ists at their place of worship in a Western city of over 
100,000 inhabitants. This particular Universalist 
mission had been under way for a year or more. At 
his hotel he confidently inquired for the place where 
the Universalists held their services. No one knew. 
He took a horse-car and went into another part of 
the city, making inquiries freely. No one knew any- 
thing about a Universalist church in that city. 
Finally, after a good hour's search, he discovered his 
expectant audience at nine o'clock at night, in a hall 
up one or two flights, and strange to say but two or 
three blocks from his hotel. Now, this sort of thing 
might have done in apostolic days, when on account 
of persecutions the early worshippers were obliged to 
seek upper stories. But in a tolerant Western city, 



56 OUR WORD AND WORE FOR MISSIONS. 

where no danger is to be apprehended, there seems 
no good reason for a Universalist mission to so effec- 
tually conceal itself. It is needless to add, perhaps, 
that, after three years or more of hard struggle, this 
particular mission has a handful of families and no 
regular preaching. A new business going into a new 
place selects the most popular location, uses printers' 
ink freely, hangs out its sign, and says to every one : 
" Here am I." Missionary enterprise can well adopt 
in a measure the hustling methods of modern busi- 
ness. This does not mean a cheap sensationalism. 
It does mean adaptation to modern demands, and 
the application of business methods to religious en- 
terprises. It is not to the point to urge that early 
Christianity proceeded in a more modest way. The 
West is not Palestine, and this is the nineteenth, not 
the first century. 

Two things, at least, are necessary for mission work 
on a scale of enterprise and fitness. First, money 
and enough of it. Money makes it possible to buy 
the favored lot and build a church of brick or stone 
comparing favorably with the church across the way. 
It makes it possible to build the church at the be- 
ginning, getting the " new church boom " when it is 
most needed. Lack of money necessitates the wooden 
chapel under the shadow of the neighboring church 
of stone, the hired hall on a back street, and the ac- 
ceptance of a building lot in the far suburbs, donated 
by some well-intentioned brother who is trying to 
work a boom in real estate. The Japan mission, the 
Harriman and Washington churches, ought to give 



OUR WORK IN THE WEST. 57 

us courage. Given a specific thing in a strategic 
place, and Universalist pocket-books will open fast 
enough. Our people are generous with their money. 
Or in the present emergency, with these many West- 
ern cities unoccupied by any liberal faith, why not 
cross our tradition line and use some of the money 
we have ? Money invested in live churches will 
bring larger returns in money as well as prestige 
than investments in stocks and bonds. At least, some 
provision should be made for a generous Building 
Loan Fund, such as has been put in successful ope- 
ration by a sister denomination, which is pioneering 
Western ground ahead of us. At any rate, if we 
want strong churches in the West there must be 
plenty of money. And money must be concentrated. 
" One or two at a time " is a good motto, unless there 
is plenty of means for more. Money scattered in 
driblets to a multitude of places is to nurse a few 
small movements into existence, that for years must 
cling to the denominational nursing-bottle to be kept 
alive at all. 

Second, a man, or a woman either, equal to the 
emergency. It is a mistake to suppose that anybody 
will do for a mission church. Far from it. To con- 
duct to a successful issue a new mission movement 
in a Western city, or in any city for that matter, re- 
quires a man of rare pulpit power, and an executive 
ability of the highest order. It requires money to 
get such men. We have few, if any, of such material 
as was wanted in Texas not long ago, " a man of rare 
power in the pulpit and out of it for a compensation 
of one hundred dollars a year and board." 



58 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

Another thing Western missionary enterprise ought 
to take advantage of is the freer use of theatres. 
The theatre church is still a novelty. It will not 
remain that long. Mr. Moody, during his World's 
Fair campaign, made free use of them, and publicly 
declared them points of advantage. If the liberal 
church hesitates to take advantage of the peculiar 
opportunities of the theatre church, we may be sure 
the field will soon be occupied by others. It certainly 
has some points of advantage, whatever may be the 
valid objections to its use in certain localities. 

First, to start services in the best theatre in the 
city is to thoroughly advertise the movement at the 
outset. With a judicious use of printers' ink, every 
man, woman, and child in the place will know within 
a month that a liberal religious movement has been 
organized. 

Second, people will go to a theatre to listen to lib- 
eral preaching, who would not go to a hall or even 
to a church. There are thousands of people so prej- 
udiced against the church that they do not think it 
worth while to go into a church building at all. 
There is nothing about a theatre savoring of denomi- 
nationalism. People are accustomed to going there 
on other occasions. Then, there is a novelty about 
it that attracts. On the other hand, there are few 
liberal people in the West who would have any ob- 
jection to attending religious services because they 
were in a theatre. Everything considered, no better 
thing can be done in the average Western city than 
to start the new church in the best theatre and hold 



OUR WORK IN THE WEST. 59 

it there. It is the popular doorway through which 
the unchurched people may come in contact with 
truth. Already this is more than an experiment. 
The popularity of the theatre for religious services 
has been clearly attested in many Western cities. 

Third, it is economical as compared with building 
a suitable and attractive church. Theatres are un- 
used on Sunday mornings even in the West, and can 
be rented for a reasonable sum. When the move- 
ment is well under way, an outside hall for social 
purposes would not add much to the expense. Infi- 
nitely better than the obscure hall policy, it is more 
economical than church building, and for successful 
Western missionary work, at least in many places, 
more advantageous. That the theatre church can be 
a success, and all the phases of church work carried 
on without at all lowering the religious ideal, has 
been fully demonstrated by the People's Church of 
Chicago, which uses McVicker's theatre. 

Still further, a successful Universalist propaganda 
in the West must stand upon the broadest possible 
platform of principles and fellowship consistent with 
a Christian basis. The policy of our Church, in the 
West at least, should be, I am fully convinced, to 
forego all creedal tests for membership in parish or 
church. Desire to be a working part of the parish, 
moral fitness, and right motive for church membership, 
is narrow enough. The basis of fellowship ought to 
be ethical rather than theological, sympathy rather 
than a creed, a fellowship of the heart rather than of 
the head. As to the advisability of this there may 



60 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

be an honest difference of opinion. The question is 
introduced here not for discussion, but on account of 
its vital bearing on Western missionary work. The 
purpose, so far as this paper is concerned, is not to 
argue a point, but to state a situation. 

There are plenty of people in every Western com- 
munity who cannot, for honest reasons, subscribe to 
our creed; but they are willing, and do, pay with 
more or less liberality to the support of our churches 
and attend their services. By our church laws they 
must subscribe to the creed, or they have no voice in 
the business administration of the parish. They are 
quick to see that this is virtually taxation without 
representation. We have not been sparing in our 
criticism of the Y. M. C. A., which has decreed that 
there is heresy in Universalist votes, but not in Uni- 
versalist money. That is, they solicit our cash, but 
refuse us a vote unless we turn " evangelical." 
Is the principle materially changed when a Univer- 
salist church says : " You can pay your pew-rent, but 
to vote you must turn Universalist " ? To insist 
upon this position is to alienate a large constituency 
of thoughtful men and women who are heartily in 
sympathy with our general work, possibly with our 
main theological principles, but who cannot, without 
mental stultification, subscribe to our official state- 
ment of them. 

Or again, here is a man who has lost interest in 
churches altogether. He is pleased with the evident 
breadth and tolerance of one of our churches. At 
last he asks for the closer fellowship of the church. 



OUR WORK IN THE WEST. 61 

He is a thoughtful, earnest, good man. He reads 
the creed, and cannot accept it. In the interests of 
church extension or of truth extension, is it wise to 
say to that man, " We cannot accept you " ? To 
adopt this policy in the West is to turn from us a 
large constituency which our church needs and which 
needs the church. Is it wise to do it ? In any given 
city where, without a creedal test, a new church might 
have two hundred substantial supporters, with the 
creed but one hundred, is it wise to insist upon the 
creed, and take the one hundred only? This is pre- 
cisely the situation, in varying proportions, in nearly 
every Western city. If in the church of which I am 
the pastor the creedal test were insisted upon, it 
would permanently dismember the church. Apart 
from the inconsistency of proclaiming the brotherhood 
of all men and then shutting out from the church 
family all except those who believe alike, is it a wise 
policy as regards church extensions? 

So far as this is plea for a broader Christian fellow- 
ship, it is no plea for independent and unaffiliated 
churches. It is a plea for what alone will make in- 
dependent churches unnecessary. It is a plea for a 
policy in the West that alone will render unnecessary 
the multiplication of liberal churches and societies, 
in the same section of the same city, to the detriment 
of each and to the liberal cause. Here is the Western 
situation, then : We can make our official creed the 
basis of fellowship, and reach a limited constituency, 
or we can base it on ethical fitness and common sym- 
pathy, and confidently appeal to a constituency as 



62 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

wide as the great West. This much is certain: the 
missionary policy which puts up no creedal bars will 
be the winning one. Our bars are not high, but high 
enough to keep out a large and desirable class which 
otherwise might be in our fold. In the interest of 
church extension alone, to put it on no higher ground, 
it is not good business sense to persist in a policy 
which must inevitably alienate from us a large body 
of serious, thoughtful, and influential people. 

No denominational disloyalty will follow the adop- 
tion of a broader basis of fellowship. There is a 
loyalty stronger than the acceptance of some other 
person's creed, — the loyalty of common sympathies. 
Nor will any distinctive doctrine of Universalism 
suffer from a new test for fellowship in parish or 
church. We are over anxious, it seems to me, lest 
if our truth escape from the guardianship of a special 
statement something may happen to it. Truth is in- 
vulnerable, and needs no sacred ark for its preserva- 
tion. Universalism has a noble and needful truth 
for the West. Put no fences around it. Into that 
pasturage of truth let all come who will. 

The final, indispensable thing in this whole matter 
of Western missionary enterprise is that it begin 
now, and in a large way. There ought to be mission- 
aries and preachers, men of energy and faith, to carry 
Christianity, in what we think is the best form of its 
presentation, to the great West. Missionaries of this 
stamp should be found and set at work at once. 
These prospectors should be followed by a permanent 
ministry to sow the seed in the broken soil and nurse 



OUR WORK IN THE WEST. 63 

it into an abundant harvest. There never was, nor 
will there ever be, a better time for it than the pres- 
ent. As has already been intimated, Western life in 
all its phases is in a plastic, formative period. It is 
still in the gristle, not yet hardened into the bone of 
fixed ways and forms. It is still impressionable to a 
degree unknown to older communities. Denomina- 
tional extension cannot anywhere else be so rapid or 
so easy as in this unformed Western life. Or from 
the higher altruistic point of view, there never was 
and never will be a better time for Universalism to 
stamp permanently into that life its noblest thought, 
its sweetest influences. A quarter of a century later 
the task will not be so easy. 

For, in a special sense, the West is now at a crisis. 
Heretofore all its energies have been absorbed in 
material pursuits. The forests had to be cleared, the 
rivers dredged, the lakes marked with highways of 
commerce, cities built, and the nerve lines of com- 
munication run out through that vast area. It has 
been a matchless energy that has thus wrought out 
of the forests and the prairie the slowly completing 
fabric of Western civilization. It is no marvel that 
into that formative struggle the sublimer interests 
did not speedily find their way. There is now a 
pause in that tireless tide of energy which has borne 
in upon this Western land its rare treasures of in- 
dustry and commerce, and cast up like jewels from 
the great deep of human enterprise her fair cities. 
The tide of Western thought begins to turn back 
toward the deep sea of superior interests. New 



64 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

impulses are abroad. Education is receiving a new 
impetus. Chicago University by the lakes, and 
Stanford University on the coast, herald the birth of 
new educational interests. Art and music are finding 
a new welcome in every Western city. The archi- 
tecture and art of the great Exposition cast its spell 
over the Western mind from the lakes to the Pacific. 
The West is tremulous with higher desires. Through 
the opening veins of these sublimer interests Univer- 
salism can, if it will, send the currents of its own liv- 
ing faith in God and man, and with other Christian 
faiths help give the West what, for symmetry and 
completion, it most needs, — a spiritual interpretation 
of life. May a vision from the West trouble our 
denominational dreams until we heed the Macedo- 
nian cry, and pass over into this land to minister as 
best we can to its needs, and take possession of its 
opportunities. 

Chicago, III., January, 1894. 




RICHARD EDDY, D.D. 



HISTORIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 65 



IV 

HISTORIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 



BY RICHARD EDDY, D.D. 



From the first, Christianity has deserved the pre- 
eminent distinction of being a missionary religion. 
Obedient to the command of the Lord Jesus, the 
apostles went forth to the conquest of the world, 
" beginning at Jerusalem." For a time the preju- 
dices of birth and the traditions of the pre-eminence 
of Judaism caused them to confine their labors to the 
chosen people, and to regard the ordinances and cus- 
toms of the Old Covenant as the only gateway to 
the privileges of the New ; and bitter and divisive 
controversies sprung up before it became settled in 
their minds that the law was wholly superseded by 
grace. 

Even after it had become a settled policy to seek 
to win converts in gentile lands, the uniform mode 
of procedure, extending at least through the apos- 
tolic age, was to seek first to reach those who fre- 
quented the synagogues. Thus what may in one 
sense be called the home work kept pace with the 
foreign work. Paul's epistles were to the converts 
redeemed from idolatry, while Peter and James wrote 



66 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

counsel and encouragement " to the elect who are 
sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, 
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." 

This " Dispersion " of the Jews was an important 
factor in the work among the gentiles. Scattered all 
over the Roman world, and even beyond the bound- 
aries of its conquests, Paul and the other apostles 
found them wherever they went. It is estimated 
that at the opening of the Christian era, four million 
Jews were in Palestine and Syria ; a million lived 
in Mesopotamia and along the Tigris and Euphra- 
tes Rivers ; a million more were dwelling along the 
Nile and in the Delta; a million more were dis- 
tributed elsewhere about the Mediterranean. They 
were especially numerous along the north coast of 
Africa, in various cities in Spain, and about Rome, 
the commercial centre of the world. Hardly a 
city of any importance but had its Jewish quarter. 
Through these the gospel got a footing as earty as 
the Day of Pentecost, — in Parthia, Media, Elam, 
Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia. Pamphylia, 
Egypt, Cyrene, Rome, Crete, Arabia, and " in every 
nation under heaven " known to the Jews. 

The book of the Acts of the Apostles is, for the 
most part, the record of foreign missionary work. At 
the close of the first century — casting aside all 
mere legends and doubtful traditions — we may be 
certain that Christian converts had been made, 
and churches established, all over Syria, Asia Minor, 
Macedonia, Greece proper, the islands, and Italy. 
From Spain to Babylon, and from Rome to Alex- 
andria, the gospel had been preached and believed. 



HISTORIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 67 

The propagand work of the Church during the sec- 
ond and third centuries is difficult to trace. The 
Church Fathers, as Justin Martyr, Irenseus, and Ter- 
tullian, speak of the progress of the faith in general, 
vague, and sometimes exaggerated terms, and seldom 
relate the conquests of particular territories. Perse- 
cutions and martyrologies acquaint us more definitely 
of the profession of the faith in cities and large 
centres of population. Professor R. D. Hitchcock, 
in his lectures, thus distributes the five hundred 
and twenty-five cities in which churches were estab- 
lished at the time persecution was ceasing. " In 
Europe, 188 in all (Britain, 3 ; German lands, 3 ; 
Gaul, 38; Spain, 45; Italy, 62; South-eastern Eu- 
rope, 37). In Asia, 214 (Asia Minor, 136 ; Northern 
Syria, 36; Palestine, 24; Arabia, 18). In Africa, 
123 (Egypt and Lybia, 28; North Africa, 95)." 
The tendency continued to be to reach centres of 
influence. 

Eminent in this work were Polycarp, Ignatius, 
Barnabas, Theophilus, Julius Africanus, and Justin 
Martyr, of Asia Minor and Syria ; Panta3nus, Clem- 
ent of Alexandria, and Origen of Egypt ; Tertullian, 
Cyprian, and Arnobius of North Africa ; Irenseus of 
Gaul ; Clement of Rome ; Hippolytus and Lactantius 
of Italy. The laity, both men and women, figured as 
prominently, in some instances were even more influ- 
ential ; merchants, miners, sailors, soldiers, craftsmen 
in every department of labor, volunteered their lives 
to the work, regarding their fidelity in it as among 
the proofs of their worthiness to be called Christians. 



68 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

Combats with heresies divided the time and zeal 
of the Church Fathers, but the humbler men and 
women, at a distance from the reach of these, gave 
themselves wholly to the conversion of the people 
among whom their lot was cast. 

Early in the fourth century, upon the union of the 
Roman Empire under Constantine, Christianity was 
recognized as the religion of the state, and mission- 
ary operations went forward with great vigor. The 
emperor was virtually at the head of both church 
and state, and questionable measures were employed 
for the supposed advantage of both. Paganism made 
a final desperate effort for the ascendency under 
Julian, and then gradually disappeared, or was in 
great measure unfortunately absorbed by the Church. 
In the far East the Nestorians, the most noted among 
the early sects for missionary zeal, were rapidly mak- 
ing converts, while Chrysostom established a training- 
school at Constantinople, where natives from pagan 
lands were- trained as missionaries to their country- 
men. In the beginning of the fifth century St. Pat- 
rick was making converts in Ireland, and eminent 
English missionaries were pushing into the heart of 
the German forests ; while a little later the Church 
of Rome sent its missionaries to the pagan tribes of 
Britain, and the Nestorians were at work in China. 
The Goths and the Vandals received a crude and im- 
perfect Christianizing ; but the invasions in which they 
engaged on the German border were disastrous to all 
Christian influences, and much territory once won for 
the heavenly kingdom was temporarily lost. 



HISTORIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 69 

For five centuries, beginning with the seventh, 
missionary work made intermittent progress. Arabia, 
Syria, Persia, Egypt, the north coast of Africa to the 
Atlantic, Spain, and the Mediterranean islands were 
conquered by the Mohammedans, who wiped out the 
Christian churches in Arabia, Nubia, and North Africa ; 
and subsequently Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica 
fell before the Crescent. But pagan England was 
reclaimed and permanently Christianized. Charle- 
magne coerced the Saxons to an outward assent to 
the Christian faith; but their true conversion came 
much later, and as the result of self-sacrificing mis- 
sionary instruction and Christian example. The 
Scandinavians became bitterly anti-Christian on ac- 
count of the treatment of their Saxon neighbors, and 
long resisted more reasonable approaches, which were 
diligently made in the tenth century. At the close 
of the period of which we now speak, all Europe was 
at least nominally Christian ; the Church had been 
planted also in Russia, and Greek missionaries from 
Moravia had reached and influenced the Poles, al- 
though the field was afterwards appropriated by the 
Church of Rome. 

On from this time until the Reformation, including 
the period of the Crusades, new territory occupied 
by Christianity was nearly all won by the sword. 
That it made any part of the original plan of Colum- 
bus to Christianize the people whom he might dis- 
cover in his search for India, is in dispute ; but it is 
of record that he " vowed to devote every maravedi 
that should come to him [from the expedition] to the 



70 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

rescue of the Holy Sepulchre." It was a crusading 
era, and very little missionar}^ work of the ordinary 
kind was done. Spain, Portugal, and France directed 
their attention to the New World, making nominal 
converts by force, but imparting very little Christian 
instruction. 

What may be regarded as the first attempt by 
Protestants to prosecute foreign missionary work was 
in 1555, in Brazil ; but the leader proved treacherous, 
and the attempt soon failed. An effort to open Florida 
to Protestantism ended in the butchery of those who 
were engaged in it by the Spaniards. About a cen- 
tury later John Eliot, the first great English mission- 
ary, began work among the Indians of New England ; 
and in 1649 the Long Parliament legalized a " Cor- 
poration for Promoting and Propagating the Gospel 
of Jesus Christ in New England ." 

In the meantime the Church of Rome had roused 
to the work, and was vigorously prosecuting it in 
the East. The Franciscans led, and the Capuchin 
order was founded soon after. The famous society 
of the Jesuits was established in Rome in 1540, and 
the Propaganda was organized in 1622, its purpose 
being " to guard, direct, and promote foreign mis- 
sions." The "College of the Propaganda" was 
instituted the following year, as part of the same 
design, — a training-school for young men of every 
nation and language for the priesthood, prepared for 
war against heathenism and heresy. Xavier was 
doing a great work in India, and Japan had gladly 
received St. Francis when he landed among them 



HISTORIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 71 

in 1549. So rapid was the progress of Christianity 
in Japan, that it seemed as if the conversion of the 
nation was to be wrought out speedily. But about 
the end of the sixteenth century the government 
became alarmed at the spread of the gospel, and 
began a work of persecution. Xogun, the supreme 
temporal ruler, pursued a settled plan of extermina- 
tion from 1615 to 1650, in consequence of which but 
few Christians remained at the latter date. This 
wholesale extermination was largely due to a sus- 
picion that the designs of the Jesuits were political. 

In North America, as the missions of the Jesuit 
society have been described in a confessedly fair 
and sympathetic tone by the Protestant Parkman, 
they were distinguished by unflagging zeal and 
savage cruelties so horrible as to be almost beyond 
belief ; and the martyr spirit of the Jesuits has had 
no parallel in any age. 

Before passing to note the modern organizations 
engaged in foreign missionary enterprises, mention 
should be made of one established by law for work 
abroad, especially on account of what it did on this 
continent. Reference is here made to " The Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," 
which was chartered by William III. in 1701. Its 
objects were twofold : " To provide for the ministra- 
tions of the Church of England in the British col- 
onies, and to propagate the gospel among the native 
inhabitants of those countries." For eighty years 
the great field of the society's missionary labor was 
the continent of North America. Shortly after the 



72 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

establishment of the society, missions were founded 
in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New 
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas ; 
and the ministers who were sent in charge of them 
were the only ministers of the Church of England 
in vast districts. Among other missionaries of the 
society, the celebrated John Wesley received an 
appointment and allowance in 1735, as its first mis- 
sionary in Georgia. It still has missions in British 
America, India, Japan, Africa, Australia, New Zea- 
land, and the Sandwich Islands. 

The chronological order in which foreign mission- 
ary work has been systematically undertaken by the 
Protestant sects, either singly or by a union of two 
or more, is, as near as the writer has been able to 
ascertain, as follows : — 

The Moravians in 1732. The West Indies offered 
a field which it seemed desirable to occupy. But it 
was represented that no one could benefit the poor 
laborers there unless he instructed them in their 
hours of labor, and that in order to do this he must 
be sold into slavery with them. Two of the mem- 
bers of the church at Herrnhut offered themselves 
as willing to submit to this fate. One of them, 
Leonard Dober, was accepted ; and accompanied by 
David Nitschman, who was to go with him to St. 
Thomas, and then return, he departed with only a 
small gift in money to his station. Happily he was 
not compelled to go into bondage, although he suf- 
fered much distress from poverty. In two years he 
was relieved by the arrival of helpers. At the time 



HISTORIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 73 

of engaging in this work, the only Moravian church 
was at Herrnhut, in Saxony, and the little settle- 
ment counted but six hundred inhabitants. Since 
that time, the home church has sent out 2,347 mis- 
sionaries, men and women. Some of their missions 
have proved unsuccessful ; but at the present time 
they are doing satisfactory work in fifteen countries, 
at an annual cost of about $250,000. Outside of the 
missionary fields, the Moravian Church now numbers 
about 100,000 souls. 

The Baptists of Great Britain organized in October, 
1792, " The Particular " [Calvinistic] " Baptist Soci- 
ety for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen." 
Their original membership consisted of twelve Bap- 
tist preachers, who unitedly contributed, as the nu- 
cleus of a fund, £13 2s. 6d. Their first field was 
India, where they have established many stations ; 
but for several years " the families of the first mis- 
sionary community lived at the same table at a cost 
of not much more than ,£100 a year." Except that 
the society now has missions at the West Indies, on 
the west coast of Africa, Ceylon, China, Japan, and 
Palestine, we know nothing of its success nor of the 
money devoted to its work. It employs 455 mis- 
sionaries, 950 native helpers. 

The Church of England, through the London 
Missionary Society, 1795, and the Church Mission- 
ary Society, 1799, has missions in Africa, Egypt, the 
South Sea Islands, India, Persia, Arabia, China, 
Japan, and many other countries. The two societies 
have 2,189 stations, 392 ordained missionaries, 4,994 



74 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

native helpers, and receive native contributions 
amounting yearly to $159,460. 

As this brings us nearly down to the time when 
American churches entered the Foreign Missionary 
field, of whose beginnings and progress we desire to 
speak somewhat at length, so far as the limits of 
these pages will permit, a brief summary of the labors 
of churches abroad must suffice. In Great Britain 
there are now between thirty-five and forty foreign 
missionary societies, reporting an income for the year 
1888, as stated b}^ Canon Robertson, of $6,672,000. 
Of this sum the societies of the Church of England 
contributed $2,708,000 ; the joint societies of Church- 
men and Nonconformists, $1,042,000 ; English and 
Welsh Nonconformists, $1,961,000 ; and Presbyterian 
societies $916,000. These British societies report 
about 1,900 male missionaries and 600 female mis- 
sionaries, with 24,000 native helpers and 351,000 com- 
municants in their churches. In Germany there are 
eighteen missionary societies, some of them working 
most effectively in foreign lands. Together they 
have about 600 European missionaries and not far 
from 80,000 communicants in their churches. There 
are also efficient missionary organizations in France, 
Holland, Denmark, and Sweden. The most recent 
statistics received from these missions last named give 
the number of their missionaries as about 100, their 
native helpers as nearly 500, and their communicants 
as somewhat over 10,000. 

In the United States there have been thirty-eight 
attempts made in the Protestant sects to establish 



HISTORIC VIEW OF F0HE1GN MISSIONS. 75 

foreign missions, which may be classified thus : Con- 
gregational, one ; Baptist (including all divisions of 
Baptists), eight ; Methodist (all divisions), six ; Epis- 
copalian, one ; Presbyterian (all divisions), ten ; 
Lutheran, two ; Disciples, one ; United Brethren, 
one ; Evangelical Association, one ; Mennonite, one ; 
Church of God, one ; American Christian (Christ-ian) 
Convention, one ; Seventh-Day Adventist, one ; Uni- 
tarian, one ; Universalist, one ; Interdenominational, 
one. Some of these have been consolidated with 
others, and some have not yet located in any foreign 
field. Thirty-three are now actually engaged in the 
work. It may be interesting to note some of the cir- 
cumstances of their organization and their success. 

The first to lead in the work were the Congrega- 
tionalists, who organized the " American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions" in 1810. The 
incitement to this organization came from four stu- 
dents of Williams College in 1806. Two years later 
three of them signed a pledge binding themselves to 
the foreign work, should it be possible for them to 
go. In 1810 these persons, being then students at 
Andover Theological Seminary, had a conference with 
Professor Stuart and several other ministers, and 
urged that some way be devised for sending them 
abroad. Rev. Drs. Spring and Worcester being of 
the number at once formed the plan of organization, 
which three days later was adopted by the General 
Association of Massachusetts, then in session at Brad- 
ford. At first a joint support of the enterprise was 
contemplated, and Mr. Judson, one of the proposed 



76 OUB WOBD AND WORK FOB MISSIONS. 

missionaries was sent to England to confer with the 
London Missionary Society as to the advisability of 
co-operation with them. United and decisive action 
by two controlling powers so widely separated was 
deemed unwise, and the American Board was com- 
pelled to rely on home resources. By this time a war 
with Great Britain was imminent, and it was a time 
of great financial distress. The Prudential Com- 
mittee felt compelled to take action of some kind; 
and at their meeting in January, 1812, but one vote 
was given in favor of pledging the support of the 
men already selected, but this one vote carried the 
resolve to advance in the work. A month later, 
Rev. Messrs. Judson, Hall, Newell, Nott, and Rice 
were ordained as missionaries at Salem, and soon 
sailed for Burmah. It had also been voted to send 
missionaries to the " Cahnewaga Indians of Canada," 
but the commencement of the war with England 
thwarted the undertaking. 

It is probable that at first connection with the 
Congregational Churches of New England was all 
that was contemplated ; but later Commissioners 
were added from the Presbyterians, Associate Re- 
formed, Reformed (Dutch), and the Reformed Ger- 
man Churches. A desire to work on denominational 
lines led to subsequent withdrawal of all these 
churches; and since 1870, the constituency of the 
Board has been practically limited to the Congrega- 
tional Churches. 

The corporation is composed of 223 members, of 
whom one-third are by law laymen, one-third clergy- 



HISTORIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 77 

men, and the remaining third may be chosen from 
either of these two classes. The actual business of 
the board is intrusted to a Prudential Committee, 
consisting of the president, vice-president, and ten 
members, — five laymen and five clergymen, — and 
to the executive officers, at present two foreign secre- 
taries, one home secretary, a field secretary, editorial 
secretary, treasurer, and general agent. These offi- 
cers present all matters pertaining to the work and 
administration of the board, attend the deliberations, 
but have no vote. With the exception of some in- 
vested funds, and two legacies devoted to special and 
distinct lines, the income of the board is gathered 
from churches and individuals in sums ranging from 
a few cents to several thousands of dollars. At first 
financial aid came very slowly, the entire income 
the first year being less than one thousand dollars 
($999.52). The last reported annual income was 
1735,218, of which sum 1117,494 were contributed by 
churches in the foreign fields. These fields are in 
Africa, Turkey, India, China, Japan, Micronesia, 
Mexico, Spain, Austria, and the Hawaiian Islands. 
Their ordained missionaries number 183 ; ordained 
native workers, 192 ; native teachers, 1,353 ; other 
native helpers, 872 ; stations and out-stations, 1,058 ; 
native communicants, 36,256. The number of con- 
tributing congregations at home is given as 3,000, 
representing 491,985 communicants. Per cent per 
member, 1.26. 

The Baptists were the next to enter the foreign 
field. Rev. Adoniram Judson and Rev. Luther Rice, 



78 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

two of the four missionaries first sent out by the 
American Board, became converts to the doctrine of 
immersion on their voyage to India, and at once re- 
signed their appointments. Mr. Rice returned to 
America to rouse the Baptist churches to interest 
in the work, and with wonderful success. Mean- 
while, Mr. Judson was being supported by the Eng- 
lish Baptist Mission. Immediately on receipt of 
intelligence of the conversion of the two mission- 
aries, a meeting of the Baptists convened at the 
home of Be v. Dr. Baldwin, in Boston ; and- those 
present formed the " Baptist Society for Propagating 
the Gospel in India and other Foreign Parts," which 
at once assumed the support of Mr. and Mrs. Judson 
and Mr. Rice. Application was then made to the 
English Baptist Missionary Society, asking that the 
American missionaries might be received into the Se- 
rampore Mission, their support being provided for 
here. The English Society decided, however, that 
such a course would be unwise, and advised the 
American Baptists to establish missions of their own. 
On the arrival of Mr. Rice, the following September, 
efforts to this end were pushed with vigor, resulting 
in a Missionary Convention in Philadelphia in May, 
1814, at which Baptist churches in eleven States and 
the District of Columbia were represented. From 
the year of organization until 1845, the Convention 
held triennial sessions, the conduct of its affairs being 
intrusted to a board of twenty-one managers. In 
1845 the Alabama Baptist Convention demanded from 
the board an " explicit avowal that slaveholders are 



HISTORIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 79 

eligible and entitled equally with non-slaveholders, 
to any appointment, either as agents or missionaries, 
in the gift of the board." The board replied "that 
if any one should offer himself as a missionary, hav- 
ing slaves, and should insist on retaining them as his 
property, the board could not appoint him." Where- 
upon the churches in all the Southern States with- 
drew from the Triennial Convention, and organized 
"The Southern Baptist Convention." 

This necessitated re-organization in the Northern 
States ; and a new convention, under the name of 
" The American Baptist Union," went into operation 
in May, 1846. This Union is composed of life-mem- 
bers and annual members. The Board of Managers 
is composed of seventy-five persons, at least one-third 
of whom are not to be ministers. The board elects 
its officers, and an executive committee of nine (not 
more than five ministers), whose duties comprise all 
the management of the missionary work of the Union. 
The financial condition of this movement has been 
variable. The first year of the existence of the Con- 
vention its receipts were $13,476.10 ; but in the first 
sixteen years the annual receipts averaged less than 
18,000, falling, in 1829, as low as $6,704. In 1890 
the total receipts were $677,022, of which sum 
$117,494 came from churches in the mission fields. 
The fields occupied are in India, China, Japan, Africa ; 
the number of stations and out-stations, 1,446 ; or- 
dained missionaries, 129 ; ordained native workers, 
228; native teachers, 1,087; other native helpers, 
1,020 ; missionary churches, 654; native communi- 



80 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

cants, 68,290. The home contributing churches 
number 7,786, representing 717,640 communicants. 
Per cent per member, .78. 

The Southern Baptist Convention has missions in 
China, Japan, Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Italy. In these 
are 161 stations and out-stations ; 33 ordained mission- 
aries ; 228 ordained natives ; 1,087 native teachers, 
and 1,020 other native helpers; 664 native churches, 
with 68,290 communicants. Total income in 1890, 
$113,855. Total number of home churches contrib- 
uting, 15,894, representing 1,194,520 communicants. 
Per cent per member, .09. 

" The Freewill Baptist Foreign Missionary So- 
ciety " was organized in 1832. " After three years 
of existence the receipts of the society aggregated 
$2,660. With this sum in the treasury, the society 
had faith to send four missionaries to India." Their 
work has been confined to India, where they have 
11 preaching stations ; 9 ordained missionaries ; 5 or- 
dained native preachers, and 12 other native help- 
ers ; 11 churches, with 699 communicants. Receipts 
in 1890, $25,891, of which $394 were from native 
churches. 1,613 churches, having 86,297 communi- 
cants, make the home contributions. Per cent per 
member, .29. 

" The Seventh-day Baptist Missionary Society " 
was founded in 1842, and established its first foreign 
mission in 1847. It has 3 stations; 2 ordained mis- 
sionaries ; 2 ordained native preachers ; 7 other na- 
tive helpers ; 1 native church, with 30 communicants. 
Its receipts in 1890 were $4,500. It has 100 con- 



HISTORIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 81 

tributing congregations, aggregating 9,000 communi- 
cants. Per cent per member, .50. 

" The Home and Foreign Mission Society of the 
German Baptist Brethren Church " (Dunkards) 
began foreign work in 1875 in Denmark, and in 1885 
in Sweden. It has in these countries 9 ordained 
ministers, 5 churches, and 131 communicants. At 
home it has 600 contributing congregations, repre- 
senting 70,000 communicants, and in 1890 received 
for foreign missions $7,936. Per cent per member, 
.11. 

" The American Baptist Missionary Convention " 
(colored) was formed in New York in 1840, and at 
that time included all the colored Baptist churches 
at the North. Its first foreign field was Africa, to 
which it sent two missionaries, but could not per- 
manently occupy the field. Uniting with the Western 
and Southern Colored Baptists in 1866, it prefixed 
the word " Consolidated " to its title. These with- 
drew in 1878, when, on account of its financial ina- 
bility, it was forced to abandon all work except at 
Hpyti, begun in 1872. It supports one missionary. 

" The Baptist General Association of the Western 
States and Territories " (colored), organized in 1873, 
sent out its first foreign missionary to the Congo, 
Southwest Africa, in 1885. Its work is limited to the 
Congo region, and under the supervision of the 
American Baptist Missionary Union. It has 1 sta- 
tion and 6 preaching-places. It contributed in 1890 
$500 to the work. Number of contributing congre- 
gations, 200, representing 49,668 communicants. Per 
cent per member, .01. 



82 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

" The Baptist Foreign Missionary Convention " 
(colored) was organized in Alabama in 1880. Its 
work is known abroad as the Baptist Vey Mission, 
and is located in the Vey Territory, West Central 
Africa. It has three missionaries, one of them a native 
preacher. Since the establishment of the mission 
about $25,000 have been contributed and expended. 
Numerical strength of the churches represented in 
the movement is unknown. 

" The Methodist Episcopal Church " organized for 
missionary work in 1819, but did not enter the for- 
eign field until after 1832. All the churches of the 
denomination were represented until 1844, but at 
that time the M. E. Church South was established, 
and formed its own missionary society. The manage- 
ment of the affairs in the foreign field is committed 
by the General Conference to the Missionary Com- 
mittee and to the Board of Managers. Its fields are 
Africa, South America, China, India, Malaysia, Bul- 
garia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Korea ; in which it has 
373 stations and out-stations, 169 ordained mission- 
aries, 242 ordained native preachers, 1,143 native 
teachers, and 493 other native helpers. Its income in 
1890 was 1697,970, of which $107,970 were contrib- 
uted in the fields. The contributing congregations 
at home numbered 22,833, representing 2,283,967 
communicants. Per cent per member, .25. 

" The M. E. Church South," at its first General 
Conference, in 1846, committed its home and foreign 
missionary work to a board of managers. Its first 
foreign mission was begun in China in 1848. Its 



HISTORIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. »83 

present fields are China, Mexico, Brazil, Japan. It 
has 169 stations, 48 ordained missionaries, 121 or- 
dained and unordained native preachers, 9 native 
teachers, and 73 other native helpers. Its income for 
1890 was $284,271, of which $8,147 came from native 
contribntions. The home contributing congregations 
were 11,767, representing 1,161,666 communicants. 
Per cent per member, .23. 

44 The African M. E. Church " began its foreign 
work in 1884. Its fields are Africa and the West 
Indies. Stations, 12 ; ordained missionaries, 9 ; native 
teachers, 7. Its income in 1890 was $ 8,640, of which 
$1,640 were contributed by native churches. Number 
of contributing congregations at home, 3,000 ; com- 
municants, 100,000. Per cent per member, .07. 

44 The Methodist Protestant Church " organized 
for foreign work in 1882. Its field is Japan, where 
it has 3 stations, 5 ordained missionaries, 4 ordained 
natives, and 5 other native helpers. It had an in- 
come in 1890 of $17,231, of which $460 came from 
its Japanese congregations. Home congregations con- 
tributing, 600, representing 142,755 communicants. 
Per cent per member, ,11. 

44 The American Wesleyan Connection " entered 
the foreign field in 1887. Its work is done in Africa, 
where it has 2 stations, 2 ordained missionaries, 1 
ordained native preacher. Its income in 1890 was 
$2,300, of which $300 were from congregations in 
Africa. The number of contributing communicants 
at home was 1,700. Per cent per member, 1.17. 

44 The Protestant Episcopal Church" organized a 



84* OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

"^Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society" in 1820, 
but took no foreign field until 1830. The committee 
for foreign missions is composed of 7 clergymen and 
8 laymen. Its fields of work are Greece, Africa, 
China, Japan, Hayti, where it has 220 stations, 23 
ordained missionaries, 53 ordained native preachers, 
217 native teachers, and 8 other native helpers. Its 
income in 1890 was $195,962, native churches con- 
tributing $ 6,778 ; 2,435 congregations, representing 
509,149 communicants, contributed the home amount. 
Per cent per member, .37. 

"The Reformed Presbyterian Church, General 
Synod," began foreign missionary work in 1836 in 
the Northwest Provinces of India, where it now has 
10 stations, 2 ordained missionaries, 2 ordained native 
preachers, and 18 other native helpers. Its income 
in 1890 was #4,850, of which $350 were from native 
adherents. At home the contributions were from 
48 congregations, representing 5,000 communicants. 
Per cent per member, .90. 

44 The Reformed (German) Church " organized a 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 
1838. For twenty-five years it had no missionaries of 
its own, but contributed funds to the A. B. C. F. M. 
Since 1865 it has supported missionaries of its own. 
Its Board consists of 8 ministers and 4 elders. Its 
work is now confined to Japan, where it has 24 sta- 
tions and out-stations, 3 ordained missionaries, 7 
ordained native preachers, and 15 other native helpers. 
Its income in 1890 was $22,835, of which $2,835 were 
from its mission field ; home congregations contribute 



HISTORIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 85 

ing, 1,554, representing 200,498 communicants. Per 
cent per member, .10. 

" The Presbyterian Church (North) " created a 
Board of Foreign Missions in 183T. Until 1870 the 
Board was composed of 120 members. In 1870 the 
membership was reduced to 15. It has, as its present 
fields of operation, Africa, South America, Mexico, 
Gautemala, India, China, Japan, Korea, Siam, Syria, 
Persia. In these it numbers 92 stations and out- 
stations, 190 ordained missionaries, 152 ordained 
native preachers, 1,105 other native helpers. Its 
home receipts in 1890 were #794,066, contributed by 
6,984 congregations, numbering 775,903 communi- 
cants. Per cent per member, 1.02. 

" The Reformed (Dutch) Church " organized a 
Board of Foreign Missions in 1832, which acted 
through the A. B. C. F. M. until 1857. It has, as its 
fields, China, India, Japan, having 155 stations and 
out-stations, 23 ordained missionaries, 10 ordained 
native preachers, 283 other native helpers. Its in- 
come in 1890 was $125,093, of which 18,003 were 
from churches in the field ; 530 congregations, having 
88,979 communicants, furnished the home contribu- 
tion. Per cent per member, 1.31. 

" The United Presbyterian Church " organized its 
Board of Foreign Missions in 1858. The Board con- 
sists of nine members, each elected by the General 
Assembly of the Church for a term of three years. 
For a number of years it had under its care missions 
in Trinidad, Syria, China, Egypt, and India ; but its 
work is now concentrated on the two latter countries, 



86 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

where it has 185 stations and out-stations, 26 or- 
dained missionaries, 23 ordained native preachers, and 
436 other native helpers. Its receipts in 1890 were 
1128,914, of which 128,375 came from churches in 
the field. At home the contributions were from 705 
congregations, representing 103,921 communicants. 
Per cent per member, .97. 

" The Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) Church" 
turned its attention toward foreign missions in 1818, 
but not until 1843 did it select a field for operations. 
Its work is done in Syria, where it has 8 stations, 
4 ordained missionaries, 4 ordained native preachers, 
4 native teachers, and 34 other native helpers. Its 
home receipts for 1890 were contributed by 104 con- 
gregations, representing 10,819 communicants. Per 
cent per member, 1.71. 

"The Presbyterian Church (South)" organized in 
December, 1861, when intercourse between the North 
and South was broken off by the war. It did nothing 
in the foreign field until 1866. Its work is in Brazil, 
China, Mexico, Greece, Italy, Japan, Africa. It has 
119 stations and out-stations, 36 ordained mission- 
aries, 16 ordained native preachers, 13 native teachers, 
34 other native helpers. Its receipts in 1890 were 
1111,944, all, with the exception of $4,317, which 
were given by its foreign converts, contributed at 
home by 1,544 congregations, representing 161,742 
communicants. Per cent per member, .66. 

" The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Synod of 
the South " began its foreign work in 1875, when it 
had for a short time a missionary in Egypt. Its work 



HISTORIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 87 

is now in Mexico, where it has 11 stations and out- 
stations, 2 ordained missionaries, 2 ordained native 
preachers, and 2 other native helpers. Its receipts in 
1890 were $5,874, all except $106 being from 117 
congregations at home, representing 8,209 communi- 
cants. Per cent per member, .70. 

"The Cumberland Presbyterian Church" began its 
foreign work in 1857. Its present fields are Japan 
and Mexico, where it has 10 stations and out-stations, 
6 ordained missionaries, 1 ordained native preacher, 
and 5 other native helpers. Its receipts in 1890 
were $21,107, from 1,175 congregations, representing 
160,185 communicants. Per cent per member, .13. 

" The German Evangelical Synod " took up foreign 
work in India in 1884, where it has 10 stations and 
out-stations, 4 ordained missionaries, 1 ordained native 
preacher, and 15 other native helpers. Its receipts in 
1890 were $9,010, contributed by 845 congregations, 
estimated as representing 150,000 communicants. Per 
cent per member, .06. 

"The Evangelical Lutheran Church, General Sy- 
nod," organized for foreign work in 1837, and sent out 
its first missionary to Southern India in 1840. Its 
missions are now in India and Africa, where it has 
12 stations and out-stations, 5 ordained missionaries, 
4 ordained native preachers, 212 native teachers, and 
176 other native helpers. Its receipts in 1890 were 
$42,757, of which $1,555 were from native contribu- 
tions, and the balance from 1,437 congregations at 
home, representing 151,404 communicants. Per cent 
per member, .27. 



88 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

" The Evangelical Lutheran Church General Coun- 
cil " commenced its foreign mission work in 1869. Its 
work is in India, where it has 6 stations and out- 
stations, 4 ordained missionaries, 2 ordained native 
preachers, 81 native teachers, and 7 other native help- 
ers. Its home receipts in 1890 were $12,177, from 
1,557 congregations, having 264,235 communicants. 
Per cent per member, .05. 

" The Churches of the Disciples of Christ " organ- 
ized a Foreign Missionary Society in 1875. It does 
its work in Japan, India, China, Turkey, where it has 
23 stations and out-stations, 19 ordained missionaries, 
4 ordained native preachers, &nd 23 other native help- 
ers. Its receipts in 1890 were 157,289, from 1,023 
congregations, having 645,771 communicants. Per 
cent per member, .09. 

" The United Brethren in Christ " organized for 
foreign work in 1853. Their field is in Africa, where 
they have 12 stations, 18 ordained missionaries, 3 or- 
dained native preachers, 16 native teachers, 24 other 
native helpers. Their receipts in 1890 were $27,708, 
of which $1,484 were from native churches. The 
number of home congregations contributing was 
4,265, representing 200,000 communicants. Per cent 
per member, .13. 

" The American Christian (Christ-ian) Convention " 
created a foreign mission department of work in 1886. 
Its field is Japan, where it has 37 stations and out- 
stations, 2 ordained missionaries, 6 ordained native 
preachers. Its home receipts in 1890 were $3,000, 
from 100,000 communicants. Per cent per member, 
.01. 



HISTOBIC VIEW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 89 

" The Seventh Day Adventists " took the foreign 
field in 1889. They work in Africa, Australia, and 
New Zealand, Pacific Islands, and Europe. The num- 
ber of stations is not given, but they report 88 
churches. They have 18 ordained missionaries, 10 
ordained native preachers, 135 other native helpers. 
Receipts in 1890, 168,000, of which $21,000 were from 
native sources. The balance came from 930 con- 
gregations, representing 27,031 communicants. Per 
cent per member, 1.73. 

" The American Unitarian Association " engaged 
in a mission to Japan in 1888. The superintendent 
of the work said in his first report : " The unique 
character of the Unitarian missions to Japan pre- 
cludes anything- like the usual missionary report. 
Sent to the men of other religions, not in the spirit 
of assumption or propagandism, but in that of respect 
and amity, the Unitarian envoy sends home no lists 
of converts." Subsequently they established churches 
and clubs, a magazine, and a school of liberal theol- 
ogy. During the year ending April, 1893, they ex- 
pended 110,176. 

The Universalist mission to Japan, begun in 1890, 
and fully described elsewhere in this volume, needs 
no further mention here. 

A brief summary of the results of foreign mission- 
ary work originating in America may thus be given : 
Stations and out-stations established, 4,889 ; ordained 
missionaries, 985 ; ordained natives, 700 ; other native 
teachers and helpers of all kinds, 8,347; preaching- 
places, 3,773 ; churches organized, 3,293 ; communi- 



90 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

cants, 287,366 ; Sunday-school scholars, 168,464 ; last 
annual receipts in foreign fields, $540,780 ; last an- 
nual home contributions, $3,943,151 ; average amount 
contributed by each member of the home constitu- 
ency, fifty-two one hundredths of one per cent; 
largest amount from the Seventh Day Adventists, 
averaging one and seventy-three one hundredths of 
one per cent per member. " The Baptist General 
Association " (colored) and the "American Christian 
(Christ-ian) Association " are alike in making the 
smallest contributions, being one hundredth of one 
per cent per member. 

Rev. Dr. Daniel Dorchester, in his very excellent 
work, " Christianity in the United States," gives the 
following, although he does not include in his view 
all the foreign missionary societies which we have 
presented : " The evangelical Christians of the United 
States gave for foreign and home missions in 1850 
one mill and one-tenth ($0.0011) on a dollar of their 
aggregate wealth ; in 1860, nine-tenths of a mill 
($0.0009) ; in 1870, eight-tenths of a mill ($0.0008) ; 
in 1880, six and one-half tenths of a mill ($0.00065)." 

The source of our information for the facts and 
figures in this paper is chiefly u The Encyclopaedia of 
Missions," edited by Rev. Edwin Munsell Bliss, and 
published in 1891. 

East Providence, R.I., January, 1894. 




G. L. DEMAREST, D.D. 



THE GENERAL CONVENTION AND MISSIONS. 91 



V 

THE GENERAL CONVENTION AND MISSIONS. 



BY G. L. DEMAREST, D.D. 



The history of organized Universalism dates from 
the year 1779, on the first of January of which year 
a number of persons, fifteen or more, most of whom 
had been disfellowshipped by the Church of the First 
Parish in the town of Gloucester, Mass., associated 
as " The Independent Church in Gloucester." 1 The 
movement arose from the ministry of Rev. John 
Murray, who in 1774 had first visited Gloucester, 
and before the close of that year had taken up 
his residence there. By 1785 several other such 
churches had been formed, as the result of Mr. Mur- 
ray's missionary visitations. In that year a con- 
vention or conference of laymen, representing five 
churches, with four ministers, including the noted 
Rev. Elhanan Winchester of . Philadelphia, met on 
the 14th of September, and agreed upon a " Charter 
of Compact," which was recommended to the several 
congregations represented for adoption. The name 
then approved for the societies was, " Independent 

1 The historical references, for years earlier than 1859, are 
from Rev. Dr. Eddy's valuable work, " Universalism in America." 



92 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

Christian Society, ' commonly called Universalis ts.' " 
This was the first attempt to associate Universalist 
churches or societies for legislation of any kind ; but 
the annual gathering ceased after a second or third 
session. 

In 1789 the Philadelphia congregation issued a 
circular letter, proposing to call "a general conven- 
tion of suitable persons . . . that we may be enabled 
thereby, as much as in our power lieth, to have one 
uniform mode of divine worship ; one method of 
ordaining suitable persons to the ministry ; one con- 
sistent way of administering the Lord's Supper, or 
whatever else may appear desirable." Such a con- 
vention was held by seven preachers, ten delegates, 
in May, 1790. It agreed upon an Address to Presi- 
dent Washington, and upon five Articles of Faith 
and a Plan of Church Government ; which latter 
were corrected and arranged by the distinguished 
Dr. Benjamin Rush, and proposed to the congrega- 
tions. How many adopted them does not appear. 
The Convention adjourned to Ma}^, 1791, and then 
held a session, also in Philadelphia, which was fol- 
lowed by sessions in most years until 1809, when 
the Philadelphia Convention passed from history. 

At the Convention of 1792 a request was received 
from the Boston Church, that the churches in New 
England might, with the will of the Philadelphia 
Convention, form a separate body, the two to inter- 
change reports. This request was granted; and in 
September, 1793, a " General Convention " of the 
" Universal Churches and Societies in Massachusetts, 



THE GENERAL CONVENTION AND MISSIONS. 93 

Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecti- 
cut, and New York," was held at Oxford, Mass. 
This Convention " is the parent of the present ' Uni- 
yersalist General Convention,'" and met annually 
until 1889, since which the amendment of its Consti- 
tution providing for biennial sessions has taken effect, 
and sessions were duly held in 1891 and 1893. The 
session of 1794 " chose Elders Michael Coffin and 
Joab Young missionaries, to go forth in a circuitous 
manner and preach the everlasting gospel," etc. It 
is probable that the labors of these two missionaries 
were " at their own charges," while the work of the 
preachers and pastors of that and a later time was 
largely of a missionary character. The preachers 
had what has been aptly called u the missionary 
spirit ; " and it was in consequence of this that 
widely scattered neighborhoods became impressed 
with " the new doctrine." 

" The Convention of 1801 . . . took the following 
action, looking to the creation of a Mission Fund : 
Voted, That a fund be raised by such ways and 
means as may hereafter be devised; the amount 
[object] of which fund is to supply the wants of 
brethren sent forth to preach, to aid in the printing 
of any useful works, and to answer all such chari- 
table purposes as the Convention may judge proper. 
. . . The ways and means subsequently recommended 
were an annual collection from all the churches, and 
the solicitation of private donations." The " mission- 
ary spirit " was not universal ; and in 1802 it was 
reported that no-response had been made to the vote. 



94 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

" The recommendation was renewed, and the Con- 
vention issued a special 'Address to the Universal 
Churches and Societies on the subject of the proposed 
Conventional Fund." No further action was had on 
the part of the General Convention toward mission- 
ary enterprise for many years, save the hopeful elec- 
tion of a treasurer, which was discontinued after 
1824. Indeed, although the State Conventions were 
the foster-children of the General Convention, when 
in the development of the latter it came to be com- 
posed of representatives of the former, it virtually 
renounced all general powers, and dwarfed its digni- 
ties into mere unheeded suggestion. 

Yet it must not be supposed that the missionary 
spirit had been extinguished among Universalists. 
Not only were the preachers of the faith a great body 
of volunteer missionaries, but many organizations of 
a local or neighborhood character sprang up and 
were beneficially active for a season. Several of 
these survive in the constitutional bodies to which 
they had been ecclesiastically subordinate, and to 
which they have yielded their work and their funds : 
notably those in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New 
York, and Pennsylvania. Some of these associations 
were publishers of tracts of considerable circulation, 
which undoubtedly had an important influence ; while 
the Universalist bibliography from the beginning 
shows a great volume of literature, evidently of a 
missionary character, circulated with a large measure 
of freedom. 

But there were many who chafed at the inactivity 



THE GENERAL CONVENTION AND MISSIONS. 95 

which had been forced upon the body representative 
of the Universalists of the country, and at the local 
character of their missionary work ; and the subject 
of a reformation of the relations between the Con- 
ventions was agitated from a date several years pre- 
vious to 1844 onward. At the date specified, the 
Rev. Thomas J. Sawyer " reported a carefully drawn 
plan of the powers and jurisdiction " of the various 
Conventions and Associations, $ portion of which 
was at first adopted, but afterward virtually repudi- 
ated. The agitation continued ; and in 1859 a 
committee, of which Rev. Elbridge G. Brooks was 
chairman, made a report, which received the plaudits 
of the Convention, and evoked advice to " our min- 
isters to read it at an early day to their respective 
congregations," and recommend it " to the special at- 
tention and action of all subordinate bodies." Read- 
ing this able, exhaustive, and timely paper now, a 
third of a century after its date, one is stirred by its 
ringing appeal. Its burden was the immediate and 
indispensable need of the Universalist body : " a 
more efficient organization," not only of the General, 
but also of the State Conventions, that they may " hold 
and use funds," and " invite and be able to accept 
bequests for the furtherance of truth." It covered 
not only the general body and its immediate constit- 
uency, but also the Sunday-schools and churches 
and ministers of their fellowship, in its urgent plea 
for more earnestness and consecration and fraternal- 
ism, and less individnalism. The appeal was not 
without its effect, though time was required for its 



96 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

realization. A committee of correspondence was at 
once appointed. In 1860 the Convention voted in 
favor of the incorporation of the Convention ; but the 
duty was neglected. It was kept in mind in 1861, 
though the attention of the American people was 
centred upon the war, and another committee on or- 
ganization was appointed. In 1862 the committee 
reported progress. In 1863 it presented an elaborate 
plan, whicJi failed to receive the assent of a majority 
of the State Conventions, without which no definite 
action of the General Convention could then be valid. 
In 1864 a committee of the session, of which Rev. 
Richard Eddy was chairman, proposed a form of Con- 
stitution, which was approved by the Convention, 
and submitted to the State Conventions for ratifica- 
tion. In 1865 it was found that a majority of these 
had confirmed the Constitution, and thus opened the 
way for aggressive work in the line of missions. 
The Convention of that, year availed itself of its op- 
portunity, and provided for an " Executive Board," 
especially authorizing it " to manage such funds as 
may be paid into the treasury for missionary pur- 
poses," and instructing it to seek incorporation under 
the laws of the State of New York. 

The Board chosen accepted the trust, and in 1866 
procured incorporation as the "Board of Trustees of 
the General Convention of Universalists in the 
United States* of America." It at an early day ar- 
ranged with Rev. D. C. Tomlinson to canvass the 
parishes of the State of New York for missionary 
funds. Mr. Tomlinson proceeded at once to the duty 



THE GENERAL CONVENTION AND MISSIONS. 97 

assigned him, and secured within a year a contribu- 
tion of $17,000 for the purpose in view. Unfortu- 
nately, the difficulty of securing agents in other 
States proved insurmountable ; and the Board was 
left to make the most of the generous New York 
contribution. Hopeful of ample funds in due season, 
the Board, deeming it "a proper department of mis- 
sionary effort to encourage and aid in the mainte- 
nance of students in the Theological School," voted 
that it would " make needful appropriations for the 
help of worthy young men, who may desire to under- 
take the pastoral office after a complete theological 
course." This policy has been approved by the Con- 
vention, and over $170,000 has been paid in further- 
ance of the purpose. 

The Convention of 1867 appointed a committee 
" to take into consideration the centennial anniver- 
sary of the denomination," which was to report in 
1868 ; but its report was that " no action had been 
taken." That Convention, however, in a resolution 
" offered by J. D. W. Joy," declared the year 1870 
" the centennial year of the Universalis ts of America ; " 
provided for the session of that year in the town of 
Gloucester, Mass., " where the first Universalist So- 
ciety was founded ; " and appointed a committee of 
thirteen, with full power, " to determine the time, 
objects, and methods of observing the centenary." 
On the report of this committee in 1869, it was pro- 
vided that a special missionary offering of $200,000 
should be raised, " to be known as the Murray Cen- 
tenary Fund, to be vested in the Board of Trustees of 



98 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

the General Convention, and the income used under 
their direction, in the aid of theological students, the 
distribution of Universalist literature, church exten- 
sion, and the missionary cause." Under the influence 
of earnest appeal and answering enthusiasm, a fund 
of something more than $120,000 was gathered, and 
its income used as provided in its foundation. Addi- 
tions have since been made by gift and bequest to the 
Murray Fund, and other general funds have been 
founded having similar purpose ; so that those funds 
whose income is available for the various forms of 
missionary work, specific and implied, now amount 
to $210,000, while in addition there are funds 
amounting to $30,000, whose income will become 
alike available at a future day. Still more, the State 
Conventions duly incorporated, and other missionary 
bodies, hold funds for home missionary purposes 
amounting to $360,000, making in all $600,000. All 
this is aside from contributions made from time to 
time for immediate use, reaching in the case of the 
General Convention alone $216,000. 

Allusion has already been made to the large sum 
applied to the aid of theological students. The 
Board of Trustees has applied to the various forms 
of home missionary enterprise considerably more than 
$200,000. That some of their efforts in this line 
have been disappointing was naturally to be ex- 
pected ; just as in the case of approved theological 
students. But undoubtedly the administration of 
the funds committed to the Board has been generally 
promotive of the interests of the Universalist Church. 



THE GENERAL CONVENTION AND MISSIONS. 99 

The Board has encouraged or seconded the efforts of 
the smaller State Convention executives in securing 
State supervision, or in fostering their missionary 
work. It has sought to stimulate and support the 
activities of groups of the brethren seeking to estab- 
lish or sustain parish life in various parts of the coun- 
try. It has enabled parishes in perilous conditions to 
tide over the obstacles to their success. It has aided 
in the erection of numerous churches where aid 
seemed to be needful for the accomplishment of the 
work. The churches at Washington, Albany, Clin- 
ton, Little Falls, of the Good Tidings in Brooklyn, 
Omaha, Amherst, Lincoln, Oakland, Pomona, Pasa- 
dena, Riverside, Oshkosh, Norfolk, Charlotte, Mar- 
shalltown, Cleveland, Woodlawn Park, are prominent 
instances of the last suggestion. 

At the session of 1882 the Trustees called the at- 
tention of the General Convention to the subject of 
foreign missions. " The time has come," said they, 
" for our church to look toward the establishment of 
missions in heathen lands. . . . Some of our people 
are already desirous of making contributions toward 
that end. If we may learn anything from the history 
of other churches, such contributions will promote 
and stimulate our home work. The missions of 
other churches have carried the blessings of civiliza- 
tion to distant lands ; and when we can engage in 
the like work our faith will surely prove its civilizing 
and Christianizing power." At the Massachusetts 
Convention the previous month, the late Rev. Dr. 
Thayer had delivered an address on foreign missions, 



100 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

which was received with much enthusiasm, and was 
followed by a small contribution, the first offering for 
the purpose in our history. The suggestion of the 
Trustees was thus greeted by the committee which 
considered their report : " We hail with gratification 
the rising spirit among our people in favor of foreign 
missions, and recognize it as a favorable indication of 
a deeper sense of responsibility for the salvation of 
the world. We second the recommendation that 
the General Convention receive donations for foreign 
missionary work." And the recommendation was 
adopted by the Convention. 

At the session of 1883 the Board of Trustees 
recalled attention to the subject : " The subject of 
missions to heathen lands has not awakened the inter- 
est which it deserves, perhaps because of the pressing 
demands for local, educational, and home missionary 
work. Yet it must be kept in mind by a church 
which recognizes the unity of the human race, and 
proclaims that the world is Christ's." At the session 
of 1886 the Board, referring to its former expres- 
sions, said : " We have not received any funds for 
the purpose indicated ; but the feeling noticed among 
our people in 1882 and 1883 had merely lulled for a 
season. We are assured that it has recently been 
expressed with much earnestness in one of our public 
bodies [the Rhode Island Convention], an earnestness 
that is ready with material guarantees when the 
time shall come. . . . Generous gifts for home mis- 
sions will be stimulated by reasonable regard for 
those of other race, but of the same blood, and of the 



THE GENERAL CONVENTION AND MISSIONS. 101 

same great family, whose Father is God." The Con- 
vention referred to above memorialized the General 
Convention at the same session for the appointment 
of a special committee, " to consider this subject with 
respect alike to its advisability, its methods, and the 
fields most favorable to the enterprise, and report at 
the next annual assembling." The Convention ap- 
proved the proposal of the Rhode Island Convention; 
and the President appointed, as the special committee 
required, Rev. Henry W. Rugg, D.D., of Rhode 
Island ; Rev. E. H. Capen, D.D., of Massachusetts ; 
Rev. Asa Saxe, D.D., of New York; Hon. Olney 
Arnold, of Rhode Island; Mr. A. T. Foster, of 
Vermont. 

The committee reported in 1887 : " (1) That it is 
the present duty of the Universalist Church to engage 
in a work of Foreign Missions ; (2) That Japan offers 
the most inviting field for such work ; " and recom- 
mended, " (1) That the Trustees of the General Con- 
vention be instructed to solicit special contributions, 
to be applied to the support of a mission in Japan, 
and invite gifts and bequests for a Foreign Missions 
Fund ; (2) That as soon as a sufficient sum has been 
received, and definite pledges made to justify enter- 
ing upon the movement, the Board of Trustees be 
authorized to establish a mission as proposed, appoint 
missionaries and teachers, fix their salaries, provide a 
proper equipment for them, and give all needed direc- 
tion and supervision, as called for in the inauguration 
and carrying on of such a mission." The Massachu- 
setts Convention also memorialized the General Con- 



102 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

vention in favor of the enterprise. The report of the 
Committee was unanimously adopted. There had 
already, in anticipation of the action of the Conven- 
tion, been contributions for the purpose amounting 
to more than $600, the first ($17.73) coming from 
the Sunday-school of the Stamford Parish, Nov. 11, 
1886. This was followed by $100, April 29, 1887, 
from the Young People's Missionary Association of 
the Church of the Messiah, Philadelphia ; and $500, 
Sept. 28, 1887, from the Rhode Island Convention. 
At the Convention, too, after the adoption of the 
report, pledges were made amounting to several hun- 
dred dollars per year for five years. 

The Board of Trustees, immediately upon the ad- 
journment of the Convention of 1887, appointed a 
Standing Committee on Foreign Missions, which pro- 
ceeded to call for pledges amounting to $5,000 a 
year for five years, or, in all, for $25,000. This was 
done " by circular and through our denominational 
papers ; " and at the Convention of 1888, it appeared 
that "the total amount of pledges made in reply, 
added to those voluntarily made in New York [1887]," 
and including cash in hand, was $7,379. Our clergy- 
men were especially solicited to sustain the enterprise 
by such contribution as they were able to make, and 
made liberal response. 

At the Convention of 1888 three platform meetings 
were held in Chicago churches ; and Foreign Missions 
were treated earnestly by Dr. Sweetser, Dr. James H. 
Chapin, and Dr. Capen. Dr. Chapin, who had vis- 
ited Japan, earnestly sustained the mission by pen, 



THE GENERAL CONVENTION AND MISSIONS. 103 

and voice, and generous gift, until the day of his 
lamented death. Meetings were held in furtherance 
of the movement, notably one in Boston during An- 
niversary Week in 1889, at which pledges were 
received to a considerable amount ; and at the Con- 
vention of that year it was reported that the amount 
of pledges had risen to $16,194. At the Convention 
of 1889, further, an appeal was made for pledges 
which resulted in the increase of the promised 
amount to $21,000. The Committee on Official 
Reports well observed, " The enthusiasm for it [the 
mission to Japan] has been steadily rising from the 
first, and now begins to sweep in with a force that 
indicates the decided purpose of the Universalist 
Church. . . . The generous responses during this 
Convention to appeals in its behalf indicate that the 
time is now ripe for a beginning. We therefore 
recommend to the Board as soon as possible to make 
a forward movement by indicating what missionary 
force we can command to initiate the enterprise. It 
is believed that something definite and immediate 
will call forth many responses from those who are 
now waiting to see the movement take shape." The 
Board, stimulated by a subscription guaranteeing the 
full amount of the estimated requirement, made by 
interested friends, acceded to the recommendation, 
and instructed its committee " to consider plans and 
persons," and report to the January meeting, 1890. 

The committee, which consisted of Rev. Dr. Rugg, 
Rev. Dr. Sweetser, and Rev. Dr. Demarest, met on 
the 20th of November, 1889; "and, thoughtfully 



104 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS 

considering, first, the matter of leadership of the 
mission already approved by the Convention, found 
themselves in unanimous agreement to invite Rev. 
George L. Perin of Boston to undertake the office, 
and happily found .him willing to accept the invita- 
tion." The Board approved the selection, and also 
the contract proposed ; and Mr. Perin, early in Jan- 
uary, 1890, entered upon an energetic canvass for 
the increase of the $21,000, then pledged to 130,000, 
supposed to be sufficient for the mission for five 
years. Mr. Perin wisely arranged for the canvass. 
With the aid of the chairman of the committee, a 
" Japan Paper " was made of the Christian Leader 
for one issue ; and the last Sunday in January was 
constituted " Japan Sunday." A quite general con. 
currence in the movement was secured. Mr. Perin 
made a spirited and highly productive personal can- 
vass of a dozen or more parishes ; and about 200 
parishes participated in the magnificent effort, which 
resulted in the additional promise of $ 40,000, making 
more than $60,000, and constituting an epoch in the 
history of the Universalist Church. 

The Trustees of the General Convention, at the 
beginning of the enterprise, engaged as assistants 
to Mr. Perin Mr. I. Wallace Cate, at the time a 
student of Tufts Divinity School, whose ordination 
was secured before his departure, and Miss Margaret 
C. Schouler, an approved and successful teacher in 
the Franklin School, Boston, Mass. In the fall of 
1892 they further engaged Rev. Clarence E. Rice, 
then pastor of the Church of the Reconciliation, 



THE GENERAL CONVENTION AND MISSIONS. 105 

Utica, N.Y. In 1893 the mission suffered the loss 
of Miss Schouler, who was ordered by her physi- 
cian to leave Japan, because of broken health under 
climatic influences. The Board have taken personal 
as well as official interest in the mission, and recog- 
nize with satisfaction the success of the enterprise 
suggested by them in 1882, which took actual form 
under the moulding hand of the Convention's Com- 
mittee on Foreign Missions in 1887, and became 
practicable in 1889-1890. 



106 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 



VI 

OUE MISSION IN JAPAN. 



BY G. L. PERIN, D.D. 



The Universalist Church came late upon the 
foreign mission field, not from choice, but from 
necessity. On account of the lateness of its com- 
ing, its critics have assigned reasons and drawn 
inferences which all the facts do not warrant. But 
it is no part of my purpose to examine or attempt 
to refute their allegations. We came late upon the 
field ; and for the sake of those to whom we might 
have ministered we are sorry. But we entered the 
field at last, in a small way, it must be granted, but 
we trust with an earnestness which can leave no 
doubt as to our sincerity. Three missionaries from 
the American Universalist Church, two men and one 
woman, settled in Tokyo, May 17, 1890. x They were 
re-enforced by the third man on November 30, 1892. 
It would seem ridiculous, at this early day, to write 
history. To make a statement to the friends of this 
mission, that they may know at least the broad lines 

1 Rev. G. L. Perin of Massachusetts, Rev. I. W. Cate of 
Yermont, Miss M. C. Schouler, for many years a teacher in the 
Franklin School, Boston, and Rev. C. E. Rice of New York. 




GEORGE LANDER PERIN, D.D. 



OUR MISSION IN JAPAN. 107 

of our work, is reasonable. Such a statement, more 
or less complete, it is my purpose here to make. It 
will be convenient to throw the discussion into four 
parts, — aim, method, results, and opportunities. 

1. Aim. On my way hither, stopping for a day in 
Chicago, a gentleman of St. Paul's Church asked 
me, "For what purpose are you going to Japan?" 
I answered innocently, and as thoughtlessly, "Of 
course to start a Universalist mission." He renewed 
the question, "But what for? Why do you wish to 
start a Universalist mission in Japan?" As put to 
me directly, by this practical man, the question was 
rather startling. But if it could not be answered, 
then why was I going? As rapidly as I could, my 
questioner facing me, I ran through the reasons, hop- 
ing, I confess, to light upon something which might 
be particularly convincing on account of its newness. 
But in that hasty search I could find nothing new, 
and so answered frankly, " I am going to Japan for 
the same reason and with the same purpose that I 
might have come to Chicago if I had been called to 
some Christian task that needed my help here." 
Since then I have had ample time to think of the 
question, but see no reason to answer it differently. 
If one teaches Christianity in Chicago, he must do it 
because he believes it is good for men to know it. If 
he teaches Christianity in Tokyo, he will do so for the 
same reason. His methods of teaching will differ in 
the two cities ; but perhaps he cannot make it appear 
that Christianity is any better for the East than for 
the West. The truth is, as it appeared to us, Chris- 



108 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

tianity is not only good, but it is the very best thing 
that any people can know. It has not yet succeeded 
in making an ideal society in any quarter of the 
world, but it possesses within itself the possibilities of 
an ideal society. At all events, it has blessed every 
land it has yet touched. It has quickened the 
thought, lifted up the moral standards, and awakened 
the spiritual sense of every people who have thor- 
oughly caught its spirit. It should therefore be as 
good in Asia as in Europe or America. If all are 
agreed upon the meaning of the term, it is perhaps 
enough to say that our aim is to make Christians. 
But if diversity of interpretation makes the meaning 
of the term doubtful, let me borrow a phrase often 
used by the great Brooklyn preacher, and say our aim 
is manhood-building. If I am asked what we hope to 
accomplish in Japan, I answer, we hope to be instru- 
mental in building a nobler type of manhood through 
the power of pure Christian ideas and the emotions 
that spring from them. We have absolute confidence 
in the means. We believe thoroughly in the regen- 
erating power of pure Christian ideas and emotions. 

We think, and for the sake of our efficiency as 
religious teachers it is necessary so to think, that in 
broad outlines we have approached very near to the 
true interpretation of the Master's thought. As a 
Universalist, it seems to me I have been intrusted 
with the noblest system of thought ever committed 
to human hands. It may be sheer sectarianism, and 
perhaps all the disciples of John Calvin have con- 
soled themselves in the same way ; but it does seem 



OUR MISSION IN JAPAN. 109 

to me the most faultless evolution of theology the 
world has yet seen. It seems the freest from super- 
stitions, the largest in its aims, the completest in its 
answers, the fullest and most accurate in its solutions 
of the difficult problems of the universe. It is to me, 
indeed, the very flower of Christianity. And I mar- 
vel when I reflect that I am the possessor of this 
splendid spiritual force. To administer these great 
ideas, to administer them in such a way as to make 
them fruitful in human life, the most fruitful, is the 
object which we have sought to keep before us in 
this country; or, to go back again to the original 
figure, to use these great ideas in manhood-building. 
This is our aim : to do it the most efficiently, to do 
it in the largest possible way consistent with the 
means at our command. 

It may be suggested that this is no other than the 
ideal object of the Christian Church and the Christian 
minister in any other land. If so, I am the more con- 
fident that it is a worthy object; and it helps not a 
little to put the missionary and the people to whom 
he has come to minister in an attitude of mutual 
self-respect. The old view, which regarded these peo- 
ple as heathen, and the business of the missionary to 
rescue them as brands from the burning, may have 
had some advantages, but I should not like to have 
come here with such assumptions. I am very glad 
to have come here with substantially the same as- 
sumptions that I should go to Chicago. I am glad to 
bring the same gospel and the same aims, because the 
people have substantially the same needs. Manhood- 



110 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

building is a good business for one to be engaged in 
anywhere in this world. The only assumptions that 
he needs to start with are that manhood is a good 
thing, and that he, as an ambassador for Christ, can 
contribute at least a little toward building it. 

2. Method. With such a missionary aim, then, 
what are the best methods? How should one set 
about his business? What are the means adequate 
to the end? Any thoughtful man would soon see 
that one door of opportunity in this country is to be 
found through the printing-press. He would soon 
see that one great need is that of a sound and pro- 
gressive Christian literature. In this field there is 
great poverty ; and whoever should become the writer 
or the translator of books suited to the time, the place, 
and the needs of the people, would surely be entitled 
to the gratitude of all who are interested in the prog- 
ress of Christian thought. That such a man would 
be contributing to the high end of which I have 
spoken, there could not be any doubt. But in my 
judgment he would not be contributing in the surest 
way. He would not be contributing in the surest 
way, because his books, however valuable in them- 
selves, would be powerless without a constituencjr. 
A Christian book must depend much upon a Chris- 
tian constituency. Without this it is not workable 
in any country. The best Christian book ever 
printed in Japan has found ninety-nine per cent of 
its readers through Christian agitators who came to 
Christianity without its help. Assuming the con- 
stituency to begin with, to make it workable, the 
book may then become a helpful agent. 



OUR MISSION IN JAPAN. Ill 

It may be urged that if the book were good enough 
it would find its own constituency. True, it would 
if it were good enough. But to be good enough to 
accomplish that it must be an epoch-making book. 
That it has been an epoch-making book in another 
language, in another age, or with other people, is no 
sure evidence that it will be so in this language, in 
this age, and with this people. . The chances are 
against it. Translations are not often epoch-making. 
This would require a new genius both in selecting 
and in translating. It may be said, "The missionary 
may write the books himself." True, he may, but 
what will he write? If he be a missionary genius as 
well as a literary genius, he may indeed write great 
books. But there are not many such people in the 
missionary field ; and in any event such books are not 
made to order. Men do not make them when they 
set out to do so. Hence they could not be relied 
upon as the regular product of even the most inspired 
missionary pen. 

But again, books need interpreters, and often the 
greater the book the more it will need an interpreter. 
Books need living interpreters. They need some 
appreciative soul who, having understood, will trans- 
late them again into the language of the people ; who, 
if necessary, will become their advocates and their 
friends. A great interpreter, at least an earnest in- 
terpreter, is often as valuable, as a practical power, 
as the book is itself. The missionary, therefore, who, 
pursues his great aim by this method, but who aban- 
dons his books or his translation before he has found 



112 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

for it a living interpreter, who has the power of put- 
ting it into the language of the people, runs great 
risk of burying in quick oblivion both his money and 
his labor. 

The printed word was a mighty power in behalf of 
the American anti-slavery cause, but how manifold 
was that power multiplied by the lion heart of Gar- 
rison and the golden tongue of Phillips ! The revo- 
lutionary theology of the liberal churches may startle 
the Christian community of Japan for a day when 
it first speaks through the types, but all the rest of 
Japan will not even hear of it if the matter is dropped 
there. The biggest Canadian steamer might come 
loaded to her decks with the best theology of these 
liberal churches, and cast the whole frieght upon 
these shores, but without friends to make it workable, 
without interpreters to make it intelligible, without 
living advocates to breathe into it the celestial fire, it 
would for the most part perish in the junk-shops. 

But let us glance at another possible form of mis- 
sionary effort. It is perhaps supposable that an 
earnest man, well fitted for the task by nature, might 
find a fruitful field wholly outside the ordinary lines 
of missionary work. If he were a man richly en- 
dowed by nature with social gifts, he might engage 
in the business of friend-making, and so gain access 
to some circles that Christian thought has not yet 
directly entered. Having made friends among the 
higher classes, he might communicate to them in the 
most informal way, by contagion as it were, his 
Christian thought. The influence of his conversa- 



OUR MISSION IN JAPAN. 113 

tion, his home, his example, might be very far-reach- 
ing. It is entirely conceivable that in rare cases this 
might be found to be a practical working missionary 
method. But as a general working plan, one must 
see at a glance that it is open to grave objections. 
In the first place, unless the plan were operated with 
rare tact, it would be regarded by the people as an im- 
pertinence, if not as a fraud. Besides, not many men 
are fitted by nature for such work. They would fail 
in the outset on account of social limitations. But 
however great their social gifts, they would need to 
be men of fine spiritual persistence, and good moral 
discrimination, if they did not allow their religious aim 
to be forgotten in the interests of the social occasion. 
Again, if they were plastic enough to conform to the 
social customs of the people, they would often find 
themselves involved in moral situations inconsistent 
with the Christian life, while, if they were austere 
enough to avoid that dilemma, their very austerity 
would quickly rear a wall of partition between them- 
selves and those whom they should seek to influence. 
In the end, therefore, I fear the social missionary would 
find himself as often the modified as the modifier. 
At all events, this cannot be looked upon as a hopeful 
general method of missionary enterprise. 

Another field is that of the evangelist, pure and 
simple. To some foreigners that would be an attrac- 
tive field. It is possible for a foreigner to become a 
preacher to the people. He may bring his great 
thoughts to the people in their own tongue. He 
may influence them by the magnetism of his person- 



114 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR .MISSIONS. 

ality. He may be his own interpreter. This method 
has great advantages ; it re-enforces the thought by 
the power of an earnest soul. Such a missionary 
becomes a manhood-builder at first hand. Such work 
may be performed with the very highest aim close be- 
fore the worker's face all the time. He is able to see 
results very early in his work. All this is possible, 
but as a general missionary method it is impracticable, 
for several reasons : First, because it implies that the 
foreigner has entered upon the work for life. It 
would indicate great lack of business sagacity to pre- 
pare to become well-equipped evangelists for a few 
years. The expenditure of time and money would 
be too great for the results. While as a matter of 
fact most missionaries either cannot or will not stay 
here for life. But if they could and would stay, 
still it would be impracticable as a general mission- 
ary method. Very few men can become excellent 
preachers in the Japanese language, while most men 
cannot become even fairly good ones. Assuming, 
then, that a missionary body is hunting for some per- 
manent method of manhood-building through the 
power of Christian ideas, I cannot regard the method 
of the foreign evangelist, pure and simple, as even 
tolerably hopeful. It is attended with too many 
difficulties ; it is a foreign plant at best, and, except 
in the rarest cases, it is almost certain to perish after 
a few years precarious struggle for existence. 

There remains still another method, concerning 
which there has already been much discussion. 1 
refer to that method which centres in secular educa- 



OUR MISSION IN JAPAN. 115 

tion for missionary ends. This method has been so 
long and so thoroughly tried in Japan, that every one 
is familiar with it. It has still some very earnest 
advocates. But the trend of opinion seems to be 
adverse to the school as the centre of missionary 
activity. In the hands of foreigners, from the mis- 
sionary point of view, secular education in Japan 
cannot be regarded as highly successful, while from 
the educational point of view, no doubt it has been 
decidedly unsuccessful. I do not intimate that it 
would not be a noble form of philanthropy for the 
Christian Church here, as elsewhere, to engage in 
building and operating schools and colleges. No 
doubt it would be. But that is not the question be- 
fore us. Our question is, would it be a wise method 
of missionary effort ? If it be urged that schools and 
colleges are very powerful agents in manhood-build- 
ing, I reply, yes ; but manhood-building in general is 
not the ideal which I have set before the missionary. 
Unquestionably there are many other methods which 
may be made to contribute to the same end. If so, 
let those who believe in them operate them. His 
ideal is to build manhood through the power of Chris- 
tian ideas and the creation of Christian emotions. No 
doubt the missionary schools have been, and are, 
helpful agents in disseminating a knowledge of 
Western science and art. Let it be granted that 
these are good and necessary things to learn. But 
the people of Japan are not dependent upon mission- 
ary schools for such knowledge. The government 
schools and numerous private schools are becoming 



116 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

well equipped for teaching Western science and art 
and history. 

As a missionary agency, the best that can be said 
in favor of the missionary school is that it furnishes 
to pupils an easy introduction to Christian teachers, 
and brings the former for a period under the Christian 
influence of the latter. So far as it goes, this comes 
within the legitimate scope of the missionary aim. 
But the method is too roundabout. It is too expen- 
sive for the results achieved. It is using, or attempt- 
ing to use, a certain machine for a purpose to which 
it is not well adapted. It is like trying to use a 
thrashing-machine for a corn-sheller. A college is 
a splendid machine for secular education, but it is not 
a good machine for Christian evangelization. It is at 
once too expensive, too complicated, and too much 
involved in other problems. In short, it is made for 
something else ; and if it serves the missionary pur- 
pose it will be only a happy accident. But wise men 
do not stake great issues on possible accidents. 

The foreigner who comes to this country to engage 
in missionary work has all these methods to choose 
from. But if he has come here with the high aim 
which I have indicated as the ideal aim of the mis- 
sionary, he will soon find any one of these methods 
unsatisfactory, because unsuited to his purpose. If 
he is working single-handed, with very meagre sup- 
port, he must of necessity be satisfied to do what he 
can in some small but useful field. But if he is plan- 
ning for others, — planning with reference to the 
future, with reference to permanent results, — he must 



OUR MISSION IN JAPAN. 117 

look for some central method better suited to his 
high purpose than any of these. 

Where, then, shall we seek a method equal to the 
aim ? Every reader will already have anticipated the 
answer: We must seek it in the organization and 
extension of Christian churches. Manhood-building is 
the end, but church-building is the means to that end. 
If we believe in the power of Christian ideas and 
emotions in manhood-building, then it must be con- 
fessed that there has never been discovered a better 
instrument than Christian churches. In so far as it 
is true to its general purpose, it seems to me to be 
almost an ideal machine. I have already pointed out 
that such an aim needs the living voice, the inter- 
preter, the man, — a man who speaks the language of 
the people. Here you have the enthusiastic advocate 
of an idea, translating it into the vernacular of the 
common people, often transmitting it by the very 
utterance into moral energy. He becomes the trans- 
mitter of no end of stored-up spiritual force. It is 
the minister's business. He has studied it ; he likes 
it ; it is his daily life. He stands close to the people. 
He is one of them. He knows their language. But 
chiefly he has committed his life to the business of 
manhood-building, through the power of Christian 
ideas and emotions. He does not long stand alone. 
Very soon he gathers around him a body of men and 
women who are more or less pledged to the same 
business. They generate enthusiasm. By the very 
pledge of association, the idea which inspired the 
first steadily takes deeper and deeper hold upon all. 



118 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

What was but dimly understood from book or maga- 
zine becomes clear under the subsequent light of 
discussion. The preacher with his living voice is 
always giving something which no book or paper can 
ever give. By a law of spiritual contagion he is com- 
municating moral enthusiasm. He has immediate 
and ready access to the emotions, and is able to make 
vital that which he and the people have been learning 
in many ways. 

I ask again, what machinery as machinery, what 
method as method, could be more ideal, considered 
abstractly ? And in the light of historj^, what method 
could be practically more successful ? Churches 
are natural distributing centres of Christian thought. 
With the end in view of manhood-building through 
the power of Christian ideas and emotions, I would 
rather have three good churches than one good maga- 
zine, if I must make choice between them. If I 
must make choice, I would rather build one good 
church in one of the chief cities of the country than 
to translate into Japanese the best book that has ever 
been written, the Bible alone excepted. With the 
purpose indicated, I would rather have ten churches 
well located than one college, and I would rather 
have one good church than all the social mission- 
aries that could be crowded between the decks of 
the Empress of China. 

In making this criticism, I wish it understood that 
I am speaking of the work that should be made cen- 
tral. And let me repeat : As a general missionary 
method, with our subject in view, there is no method 



OUR MISSION IN JAPAN 119 

so good as that which makes church-building central, 
as a means to the higher end of manhood-building. 
But having made this central, I would freely use 
every available auxiliary. With our end in view, it 
would be bad policy to substitute college building 
for church building. But as an auxiliary, if we can 
have a college, let us by all means have it. With 
our end in view, it would be bad policy to substitute 
magazine-making and book-translating for our main 
business. But remaining true to our main business, 
book and magazine making as aids become nearly in- 
dispensable. Books and magazines become conven- 
ient lines of communication to our outposts, and 
through them to multitudes of other people. But 
with reference to any auxiliary we must be careful 
to observe proportion. We must give attention to 
emphasis. As false emphasis will spoil a piece of 
music, so false emphasis will spoil a piece of mis- 
sionary work. There are certain auxiliaries which 
we have come to regard as nearly indispensable to 
success in large and progressive church-building ; but 
if we shall become so absorbed with the progress of 
the auxiliary that we forget or neglect the thing for 
which it exists, then our emphasis is false. 

I need hardly say that the Universalist mission has 
believed in church-building as central in a good mis- 
sionary method. We have acted upon our convic- 
tions, and our convictions have grown stronger with 
the action. From the outset we have planned to 
establish churches in which people are to be gath- 
ered, to be ministered unto by Japanese pastors. As 



120 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

leading up to this we have scattered many thousands 
of tracts and pamphlets ; we have edited a magazine ; 
we have translated and circulated books ; we have 
conducted secular and theological schools; we have 
preached with considerable regularity ; we have in- 
vited questioners ; we have conducted an extensive 
correspondence ; we have freely used the secular news^ 
papers. But all this we have done with an eye con- 
stantly upon our main business. We have tried to 
hold ourselves in readiness for any method which 
might promise a new channel of Christian influence, 
never doubting for a moment, however, that, so far 
as our influence in Japan is to be permanent, it must 
be largely through the churches which directly or 
indirectly we shall assist in building and fostering. 
Having shown what should be central in a good 
missionary method, let me try to answer the further 
question, " What is the natural place of the foreign 
missionary in this work ? " I have already given it 
as my opinion that the conditions of his situation 
will not admit of his engaging to any considerable 
extent in the direct work of preaching to the people. 
It is difficult to decide in which form his preaching 
will be the poorest, whether in his own version of 
the Japanese language or through an interpreter. If 
it is not practicable for him to become a preacher, 
much less is it practicable for him to become a pastor. 
I do not know that a serious attempt of the kind 
has ever been made. But if it should be made, it 
would be foredoomed to failure. Nature is against it. 
Churches in Japan must be made by the Japanese 




REV, HIZEDO YOSHIMURA. 



OUR MISSION IN JAPAN. 121 

people. The immediate organizer and worker must 
be a Japanese pastor. The nation, if it shall ever 
become Christian, as I confidently believe it will, 
must do so chiefly through the influence of her own 
preachers. 

But there is one field in which the influence of the 
foreign missionary should be very potent. In the 
early days of the mission particularly, and if he be a 
wise man perhaps for many years, he may exercise 
great influence as a counsellor. This is reasonable ; 
by his larger experience he is fitted for it. He is a 
man of experience among men without experience. 
He is organizing an institution with which he is 
acquainted, but with which many of his Japanese 
co-workers have but meagre acquaintance. No 
doubt, even here his position will often be delicate 
and difficult, and particularly if he should forget 
that, while he knows more of the historic Church, they 
know more of their own historic customs and pecu- 
liarities. Nevertheless, the right of nature is on his 
side, and it will be unfortunate if he abandons his 
natural position on account of the difficulties, and 
still more unfortunate if he does so on account of 
some current sentiment which finds expression in the 
familiar phrase, "Japan for the Japanese." With all 
Christian love, with infinite patience and unyielding 
persistence, the Christian missionary should be, and 
remain so long as possible, the counsellor among 
his Japanese co-workers in developing and executing 
missionary plans. In the beginning he will do this 
as a leader from the inside ; but in the end, if his 



122 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

work has been successful, only as a friend from the 
outside. 

But, important as this is, it is not to be henceforth 
the chief work of the foreign missionary. Whatever 
his work may have been in the past, in the future it 
must be chiefly, in this country, the work of educating 
the Christian ministers. While there are hindrances 
even here, there is nothing else that can be done so 
well. We may instantly assume that, if there were 
strong, consecrated, well-trained native ministers to 
take his place, even this work would be better done 
by Japanese educators. But even in the oldest mis- 
sions it is perhaps too early to fulfil all these condi- 
tions ; while with the younger ones it must still be 
many years before this work can be handed over 
entirely to trained Japanese teachers. Here, then, is 
the missionary's golden opportunity. He may teach 
the teacher ; he may train the preacher. He may fill 
others full of his own thought. If he has no voice 
of his own, he may train up many voices to speak for 
him, more eloquently than he could hope to speak for 
many years. Having, by all his own early education, 
and all the traditions of his early life, been drinking at 
the Christian fountain, he may teach these new min- 
isters of another tongue how sweet its waters are. 
How fine a privilege it is if we may take part in the 
Christian education of a score of consecrated young 
men, who shall go forth to the world with a lifelong 
Christian message to their countrymen. 

It need not be said that thus far we are entirely in 
the elementary stage of our missionary enterprises. 



OUR MISSION IN JAPAN. 123 

Our office has necessarily been, and perhaps must for 
a while longer continue to be, a varied one. But as 
the work progresses the responsibility of the pastors 
will grow broader, and that of the missionaries nar- 
rower, ever centring more and more in the business 
of training Christian ministers, until at last, even here, 
we shall be relieved by native scholars who are com- 
petent to take our places in the theological school. 

3. Results. There always seems to me not a little 
irreverence in counting results. The ideal mission- 
ary works, and trusts God to count results. And yet 
those who have generously given to this enterprise, 
and who are anxiously watching to see what the work 
will come to, have a right to know what, from our 
human point of view, has been accomplished. Still 
it is hard for me to overcome the feeling that it is 
too early to count results. We have been on 
Japanese soil but a little more than three years, 
scarcely long enough to adapt ourselves to the new 
situation. But that it may be clear that from the 
first we were alert and eager to do our best, note 
these entries in our missionary record: Settled in 
Tokyo, May 17, 1890 ; first two months spent largely 
in getting acquainted with the work of other missions 
and studying their methods. Surprised at their splen- 
did achievements. Inspired with hope for our own 
work. Whole missionary force spending some time 
every day on the language. July 15th : It is clear 
that we must have a central location and a conveni- 
ent meeting place. Many days spent in studying the 
city and searching for a convenient location. About 



124 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

this time advertised our presence in many news- 
papers of the empire and invited correspondence. 
Scores of letters came. For many weeks one of 
our number was kept pretty busy dictating answers. 
Land purchased about September 1st. Question-class 
opened in dwelling-house. Tract, setting forth our 
thought and our purpose, written and translated. 
Building begun about October 1st. October 6th: 
English school opened in dwelling house. Two 
members of the mission still working as time will 
allow on the vernacular. Another tract translated. 
December 25, 1890: new church dedicated. From 
this time regular Sunday services. Already several 
Christian converts. January 5, 1891: one member 
of the mission made a trip into the interior with 
interpreter, visiting and speaking several times in 
Nagoya and Shizuoka. From this time regular work 
in theological school. March 1st : Established first 
outpost at Shizuoka. September 1st : Theological 
school regularly organized and monthly magazine 
established. March 1, 1892 : Outpost at Osaka. 
July 1st : Outpost at Sendai. October 1st : Girls' 
school, with forty pupils, established at Shizuoaka. 
December 1st : Another outpost at Osaka, also one 
in Okitsu. Meanwhile three other tracts translated, 
two more outposts opened, and Allin's Universalism 
Asserted just from the press. Theological school 
grown to ten members. Perhaps in all one hundred 
and fifty baptized converts. 

Results ! Not very inspiring if one is thinking of 
completed results, of victories actually won. But if 



Q 




OUR MISSION IN JAPAN. 125 

an organized army capable of gallant fighting may be 
counted as a result, it is not wholly disheartening. 
A review of the record would show a church build- 
ing with settled pastor in Kojimachi Tokyo, another 
church with settled pastor at Shiba, Tokyo. Two 
preaching stations with two evangelists in Osaka. 
One preaching station and regular evangelist at 
Shizuoka. One preaching station and one ordained 
minister at Sendai. One station and one evangelist 
at Okitsu. One church with meeting-house and 
regular student supply at Hoden, and in all these 
places regular baptized members of the church. In 
literature we have six tracts, one book, and a regular 
monthly magazine in the vernacular. In schools we 
have one theological school in Tokyo, one girls' school 
in Tokyo, and one girls' school in Shizuoka. 

Results ! Much too meagre to satisfy the ambition 
of your missionaries, who are eager that the Univer- 
salist Church shall bear an honorable part in making 
this a Christian nation. But we are consoled with 
the reflection that perhaps those whose servants we 
are in this enterprise did not expect more than this. 
But whether we may regard the results thus far as 
satisfactory or unsatisfactory, the thing wdiich is cer- 
tain is that the Universalist Church has in this land 
great possibilities. 

4. Opportunities. Universalism has been hospitably 
received in Japan. It has in its theological position 
immense advantages. Particularly in its exposition 
of the nature and office of Christ and the question 
of human destiny it is a welcome thought to the 



126 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

Japanese. It has been eagerly seized by the people 
in every outpost city, and already commands respect- 
ful attention. By this I do not mean to boast, and 
I am far from saying that the victory has been won. 
We are still a score of years from the point where we 
may abandon the movement to its own fate, in the 
confident hope that it will be able to maintain itself 
by the inward life and power which shall have been 
generated by growth. It should be taken as a mat- 
ter of course that what has been accomplished thus 
far is but the beginning. It is but the staking out of 
the ground. It is but the putting on of the armor. 
It is but the first bugle blast. The beginning is 
hopeful, but the battle is yet to be fought. Let us 
pray that it may be fought in the name of Christ and 
with great faith. What the Japanese Universalist 
Church shall be in the future depends very largely 
upon what we are willing to do for it in the future. 
That it will steadily go forward step by step there 
can be little doubt. To reach any other conclusion 
would be to charge our people with being mere stage 
actors, playing a part for effect, or to charge them 
with blind zeal, building without counting the cost. 
No one who knows anything of the history of the 
Universalist Church will be likely to make either of 
these charges. We are not rich enough to gratify 
our little conceits on so large a scale, and we are 
not emotional enough to commit a sentimental blun- 
der of such magnitude. The greatest blunders we 
have ever committed, those of undertaking too small 
things, have sprung from the very absence of emo- 



OUR MISSION IN JAPAN. 127 

tion. I am willing, therefore, to believe that the 
Japan Mission has been the deliberate choice of the 
Universalist Church, and that she means to sup- 
port it and be faithful to it so long as the sacrifice 
is justified. If my judgment is sound in this, then 
the time is near at hand when another five years' 
campaign will have to be planned and the sinews of 
war provided. Four out of the first five years have 
already gone. For busy people time has wings. 
We shall soon stand face to face with the necessity 
of providing for the mission for the second five 
years. The generosity of the first gifts surprised 
even the most sanguine friend of the mission. And 
yet the needs of the second five years will be greater 
than those of the first five. But this prospect does 
not alarm me in the least, for when the first gifts 
were made they were made in sheer faith. We were 
absolutely without experience. To-day a splendid 
opportunity lies definitely before us, while creditable 
achievements lie behind. What before was but a 
dream, is to-day a reality. We have before us not 
merely the vague opportunity to scatter broadcast 
the seed of our Universalist thought, but we have 
before us the inspiring opportunity to build here 
in the " Land of the Rising Sun " a new Univer- 
salist Church which shall not only modify all the 
beginnings of Christianity in the Empire, but whose 
gospel of glad tidings shall be to multitudes of 
people the gospel of Christ. The foundations of 
this church are already laid. The building should 
not pause for a moment. It need not do so if — 



128 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

nay, it will not. The Universalist Church of America 
has already counted the cost. It has courage equal 
to the situation, and generosity equal to its courage. 
I have been asked by the Board of Trustees of 
the General Convention to come home and assist 
in the canvass. I accept the invitation with absolute 
faith that the response will be such as not only to 
carry joy to the hearts of those who are working 
gallantly in the field, but also such as to send a new 
thrill of life throughout the length and breadth of 
our home church. By this declaration of faith I 
herald my coming, and in behalf of the great cause 
I shall represent, I pray for as hearty a welcome in 
all our churches as that accorded to the represen- 
tative of the Japan Mission in 1890. 

Tokyo, 1893. 




H. HOSHINO. 



A JAPANESE VIEW. 129 



VII 



A JAPANESE VIEW. 



- 



BY REV. H. HOSHINO.i 



I have been requested to answer for this volume, 
these three questions. 1. " Is the Universalist in- 
terpretation of Christianity welcome to the Japanese 
people ? " 2. " Is the outlook for the Universalist 
Church hopeful ? " 3. " Are the Japanese generally 
indifferent toward religion ? " 

Of course it is understood that my answers to all 
these questions are from a strictly Japanese point of 
view. As to the first question, I am entirely certain 
that Universalism is a welcome thought to the Japa- 
nese people. Since the fall of Feudalism, Confucian- 
ism and Buddhism became so far powerless and 
inactive as a practical power, that the old moralities 
deteriorated and left the people without any definite 
moral standards. At this juncture Christianity was 
imported with Western civilization. And as the 
people were anxious to receive the whole of that civ- 
ilization, the natural tendency was to receive Chris- 
tianity with the rest. And as a matter of fact it 

1 Mr. H. Hoshino is the Japanese editor of the Liberal Chris- 
tian, the organ of the Japanese Universalist Churches. 



130 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

found a lodging-place in nearly every city of the 
Empire, reaching the climax of its prosperity in the 
period from 1885 to 1888. But that prosperity, 
which then looked so hopeful, was not the true re- 
sult of Christian work. This early progress was due 
largely to the fact that it came as a part of Western 
civilization, and many people accepted it without 
much discrimination. Accordingly, when they had 
the leisure to study Christianity further, they found 
that some doctrines had been taught which did not 
seem to be really essential to Christianity. And this 
was perhaps one cause of the panic which occurred 
among Japanese Christians a few years ago. Many 
thoughtful men of our country are directly or indi- 
rectly in favor of Christianity, that is. in favor of its 
central ideas. But they do not like its complicated, 
ambiguous, and narrow doctrines. Therefore they 
believe that it must be improved and assimilated, 
that they may have a simple, clear, broad statement. 

In this questioning period, liberal Christianity 
was very welcome. Thoughtful men generally re- 
jected the narrow view of orthodoxy. Some left the 
the old church, but many others remain in it, accept- 
ing the liberal thought. It is certainly true that 
most Japanese Christians were influenced by the 
liberal theology, and adopted the broader thought 
for their own satisfaction, even though they do not 
call themselves liberal. 

Now, some orthodox men are saying that the lib- 
eral men are doing only a negative work, and lack 
real faith. On the other hand, the liberal men are 



A JAPANESE VIEW. 131 

smiling at the narrowness of orthodoxy. It seems 
to me that in some cases both sides go too far, and 
that each misunderstands the other. 

But Universalism seems to me to avoid both 
extremes. It is neither narrow nor negative. It 
is a broad, reasonable religion, doing a positive 
work. It ought to succeed in Japan, while narrow 
orthodoxy on the one side and negative liberalism 
on the other side may fail. Universalism is certain 
to be welcome in Japan, and certain to satisfy fair- 
minded men. 

II. "Is the outlook for the Universalist Church in 
Japan hopeful ? " It seems to me that fair-minded 
men will never oppose our thought, even if they do 
not join our church. But it is an unrivalled fact, 
of which we may speak without boasting, that the 
Universalist mission has had remarkable progress in 
establishing outpost stations in the brief time that 
it has been at work in this country. What is the 
reason that the Universalist Church in Japan has 
progressed so rapidly in comparison with its working 
years? Does it not prove that it is especially suit- 
able to the Japanese ? No doubt it is partly owing 
to the earnest efforts of the missionaries, for whom 
we thank God; but it also shows that the people 
were ready for the thought, and the thought suitable 
to the people. Therefore, I believe the outlook for 
the Universalist Church in Japan is hopeful. 

III. "Are the Japanese indifferent or cool towards 
religion ? " Perhaps most foreigners would answer 
this question in the affirmative, and many Japanese 



132 OUR WORD AND WORK FOB MISSIONS. 

would give their assent to the answer. But if this 
be true, then the outlook for any religion in Japan is 
nearly hopeless. And at first glance it does seem to 
be so ; but the conclusion seems to me superficial, and 
to be based, not upon what is essential, but upon what 
is really temporary and irregular. 

Is religion a mere incident or accident ? Or does 
it belong in the constitution of human nature ? If it 
be only the former, then there may be some people 
who are wholly indifferent to religion. But the his- 
toric fact seems to be that there is no people and no 
age wholly without religion. If, then, religion be 
based in human nature, it would be strange if we 
found in the Japanese people an exception to the 
rule. To show that my countrymen have ever been 
susceptible to the claims of religion, I would like to 
call attention to three historic facts : (1) In former 
times, when Buddhism was at the height of its pros- 
perity, it had such a hold upon the people that its 
disciples included emperors, princes, nobles, and 
common people. So great was its influence that 
at different times thirty-seven emperors forsook their 
homes and entered Buddhist monasteries. 

(2) In the seventy years after the Roman Catholic 
missionaries first came to this country in the six- 
teenth century, there were about two million con- 
verts. Under the later feudal governments they were 
subjected to the most severe persecutions, through 
which they endured torture and death with a heroism 
and fortitude worthy of Christian martyrs. Such de- 
votion could hardly have been found in men who were 
indifferent to religion. 



A JAPANESE VIEW. 133 

(3) Even to-day it is true that among the lower 
classes there are low forms of religion which still 
have great power. It may be a disagreeable fact, 
still it shows that the people are not indifferent to a 
religion on a level with their thought. Why, then, 
is this charge so frequently made, that the Japanese 
people are indifferent and cool toward religion? It 
is owing to the fact that the old religions no longer 
satisfy thoughtful minds, while as yet no successor 
has been found to take the place of the old. The 
people are waiting for a noble religion, and as they 
wait they seem to be indifferent. But I repeat, that, 
though the Japanese seem to be indifferent, yet it is 
an unnatural state of things, and I predict that 
before many years they will be once more aroused 
to a profound interest in the claims of religion. 
Thoughtful men are hoping for and expecting under 
the Christian name a religion of power which shall 
satisfy the mind and the heart, even as the Jewish 
people expected the coming Messiah. 

I believe the Universalis t interpretation of Christi- 
anity — broad and reasonable as it is — will satisfy 
these waiting minds. And it will be strange if, with 
such a truth and such an opportunity, it does not 
have great progress. 

Let me only add that, in behalf of this great faith 
of Universalism, we Japanese workers feel the weight 
of our responsibility, and pledge ourselves to the best 
possible service. 

Tokyo, June, 1893. 



134 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 



VIII 

IMPRESSIONS OF OPPORTUNITIES AND 

NEEDS. / 



BY REV. CLARENCE E. RICE. 



I confess to some feeling of diffidence as I con- 
template the task of formulating impressions of our 
work in Japan. The most efficient veteran in the 
service might well feel that the task was one that 
called for his profoundest knowledge and his most 
careful judgment. Japan is so extensive, her prob- 
lems so varied, her needs so great, that a novitiate of 
scarcely a year's experience naturally hesitates before 
venturing a judgment. It must be remembered that 
the Mikado's Empire reaches from Kamchatka on the 
north, to the Loochoo Islands on the south, a terri- 
tory extending over the vast area of 148,742 square 
miles. Into the many different prefectures of the 
Empire missionary enterprise has worked its way 
during the last thirty-five years. It is not difficult 
to find those here who have grown gray in service, 
who have confronted the numerous and difficult mis- 
sionary problems for years, and still feel that they 
are unsolved. 

In dealing, therefore, with so great a subject, under 




REV. CLARENCE E. RICE. 



IMPRESSIONS OF OPPORTUNITIES. 135 

such necessary limitations, I can only hope to give 
superficial impressions ; and of our special work as 
Universalists, I can only speak in a general way, 
basing all upon less than a year's observation in the 
field. Sometimes it is true, however, that first im- 
pressions are lasting. The first fresh view often 
clearly defines the outline of a landscape, and needs 
nothing further to correct or to strengthen the pic- 
ture. The field here has its marked features, its 
manifest lines and peculiarities, and even a hasty 
glance stirs one to consider, with eager thought, the 
problems of its present and its future estate. 

Missionary opportunity and missionary needs al- 
ways go hand in hand. And, in general, the one is 
the measure of the other. In Japan, with its forty 
millions of souls, the door of opportunity is open to 
the Universalist Church. But one needs to live in 
this Oriental atmosphere only a little while to learn 
that that door of opportunity challenges effort of 
the most persevering and judicious character. It is 
not certainly a case where, — 

" Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." 

More and more I feel that this open door invites suc- 
cessful entrance only to those who have the genius 
to adapt themselves to the exigency of the time 
and people. For the opportunity here must be esti- 
mated by the condition and temper of this land. 
The conception which many of us held in our child- 
hood, that the people on the other side of the world 
must necessarily be upside down, if not literally true 



136 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

of the Japanese people, is true in a figurative sense 
as regards their methods of thought, customs, etc. 
Every visitor to this interesting land notices this 
strange contrariety. The carpenter draws the plane 
towards him instead of pushing it from him ; the 
blacksmith sits on the floor and works at his anvil ; 
Japanese books all begin where ours end ; they write 
their letters in an order just the reverse of ours ; 
their entrances are always at the back of the house, 
and a host of other customs opposite to ours. But 
oftentimes the methods of thought and methods of 
action are quite as strange to us, so that he who 
reaches the heart and head of the Japanese must 
often accomplish the feat by turning an intellectual 
somersault, or by some method of reversed thought 
to which he must get accustomed. But once this 
difficulty is appreciated, a rich mine is opened, from 
which may be drawn the choicest gems of life and 
manhood. Whatever we may say of their peculiari- 
ties of thought, one is from the first struck with 
the general eagerness among the people for educa- 
tion. The most transient tourist is impressed with 
this feature of Japanese life. The great cities of 
Japan are crowded with students, who make educa- 
tion a passion and pursue knowledge with eager 
quest. No difficulty is too great, no hardship too 
severe, to daunt them, if knowledge is to be attained. 
It would be strange, indeed, if Universalism, with its 
matchless logic and " sweet reasonableness," could 
not impress its truth upon some of these eager 
searchers. We establish schools and form classes, 



IMPRESSIONS OF OPPORTUNITIES. 137 

not alone to feed the hungry intellects of the people, 
but always with a view of ultimately touching their 
religious natures. It may be, and doubtless is, the 
fact, in some instances, that our Bible classes, our 
day-schools, and even our Sunday congregations, have 
an element who care more about learning English 
than they do about learning the gospel. Even so, 
it still remains true that Christianity often gets a 
hearing when otherwise it would be unheard. And 
often it has proved, that those who came with no 
religious thought remained to labor and to pray 
most earnestly for the Christian cause. And this 
desire to learn on the part of the Japanese seems to 
me to be peculiarly advantageous to our church, 
since our faith is not fraught with theological dogmas 
and intellectual difficulties so troublesome to the rea- 
son-loving Japanese mind. With a religion that has 
science as its handmaid, we shall be derelict if we 
use not this, our advantage, to strengthen our cause, 
and sow the seed of truth upon the teeming soil. 

And then, again, not to speak of advantage as re- 
gards any distinct sect, there is here immense oppor- 
tunity to do practical Christian work. The lack of 
high moral standards in a nation like Japan furnishes 
the Christian opportunity. It may seem, at first 
thought, more like an obstacle than an opportunity ; 
but to face evil in all its forms is the prerogative of 
Christanity, and were it not so the Church would not 
exist. Soul-saving is what we are here for primarily, 
and we have no call to work here if our influence does 
not make for a practical bettering of moral conditions 



138 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

among the people. In the old feudal days the chiv- 
alric knight felt it to be an opportunity greatly to be 
desired when, for the sake of honor, he could cross 
swords with an enemy. It is, or ought to be, a 
coveted opportunity with any Christian church to 
cross swords with the arch enemy of truth and right- 
eousness, wherever he may be found. Not that Japan 
is peculiarly lacking as regards moral purpose and 
life. It stands, we may believe, far ahead of many 
of the unchristian nations of the earth. But its 
standards are not the standards of Christ. Its code 
of honor, its treatment of women, its view of chastity, 
its loose regard for veracity, are defects which stir 
the heart of the Christian to a realization of his 
responsibility. 

But here we are as a church in the field, face to 
face with these great problems. Here we are, de- 
puted to hold aloft the Christian standards of light 
and life. It is our opportunity, before which we may 
pause almost with bated breath, as we remember that 
this business is ours, and that we are responsible till 
it shall be accomplished. Often when I have stood 
before Japanese audiences to deliver the Christian 
message, as I have seen these faces of eager inquiry 
looking up into mine, I have felt thrilled with the 
opportunity vouchsafed me, and yet weighed down 
with the responsibility involved. The more we real- 
ize that Ave are called to this great work, the more 
will we feel that the message is more deeply signif- 
icant even than when delivered at home. Face to 
face with this pitiful ignorance and moral decrepi- 



IMPRESSIONS OF OPPORTUNITIES. 139 

tude of the people, the work becomes fraught with a 
new meaning ; and it is strange if the pleading voice 
of their spiritual need does not impress us as at once 
with the opportunity and the difficulty of our work. 

But this opportunity will perhaps appear clearer 
when we consider the comparative cost of projecting 
Christian work in this country. In years past I have 
often heard the objection made to foreign missions 
that the comparative cost was too great. Often the 
assertion has been made by virulent opponents of mis- 
sions abroad, that for every cent used in actual work 
in the field, it required nearly another cent to get it 
there. That is to say, that the expense incident to 
the prosecution of the work was out of all proportion 
to the same work done at home. If that has not long 
since been proved to be the whimper of the pusillani- 
mous souls who seek an excuse for their own faithless- 
ness, it will take but a brief survey of the actual facts 
to prove how erroneous the statement is. In Japan 
everything, with rare exceptions, is cheaper than at 
home. The cost of food and labor is the marvel of 
all foreigners who come here. It is possible to place 
a good Japanese man, a graduate of our Theological 
School here in Tokyo, at the head of a movement in 
any of the large cities at a salary which need not ex- 
ceed forty yen per month ; this, at the present rate 
of exchange, is considerably less than forty dollars 
in gold. The rent of a hall or the building of a 
church is about in the same proportion. I have 
struck an average of the cost of our different outposts 
in Japan, and find that thus far each mission has been 



140 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

supported at less than forty-eight yen per month. 
This, translated into gold at the present rate of ex- 
change, means about $34 per month. Think of main- 
taining a mission in a great city at an expense of less 
than $400 a year ! Compare these figures with the 
cost of carcying forward a movement in an American 
city, and we shall readily appreciate the low cost at 
which work may be carried on in this foreign field. 
Of course there are other considerations involved. 
The movements in Japan may have to be supported 
for a longer period than at home ; but after all is 
said, the fact remains that mission work here is at 
comparatively small cost. I submit that these are 
facts well worth the careful consideration of those 
who are fond of dwelling upon the fact that there are 
many heathen at home who need to be saved. 

I may add, as a last consideration from the side of 
opportunity, that the absence of an inherited preju- 
dice against Universalism in this country is a con- 
sideration of much importance. At home, such has 
been the training of the community that Universal- 
ists must start in any given place at great disadvan- 
tage ; and under good conditions it must take a series 
of years before that prejudice can be overcome. Here, 
on the other hand, there is no such bias in the mind 
of the people. It is true that our orthodox mission- 
aries have brought their prejudice with them, and 
would predispose the mind of the natives against us if 
they could. But, in the main, all sects at the start 
stand on the same level. Indeed, if there be any 
advantage on either side, it is on ours, since Japanese 



IMPRESSIONS OF OPPORTUNITIES. 141 

generally incline toward the acceptance of liberal 
thought. I venture to believe that, other things being 
equal, if an Orthodox and a Universalist movement 
were inaugurated at the same time in a given city, 
the liberal sect would generally find the warmer 
place in the Japanese heart. It is certainly worth 
while, in dealing with this question, to bear in mind 
that there is no great wall of prejudice already before 
us when we enter the field. 

These considerations present, in a general way, the 
side of opportunity in this Land of the Rising Sun. 
And it is easy to grow enthusiastic as one stands in 
the field and contemplates past achievements and 
future promise. But one will do well to avoid the 
unwise zeal of the novitiate who closes his eyes to 
the difficulties which confront every missionary under- 
taking. Indeed, the more one studies the situation 
from the side of advantage, the clearer will it appear, 
as has already been indicated, that the opportunity 
measures the need. The obstacles by which we are 
constantly met, such as the extreme difficulty of the 
language, the moral looseness noticed in so many 
directions, the peculiarities of Japanese thought, etc., 
indicate needs ; and these the most superficial observer 
can hardly leave out of the account. 

At the outset, and all along the line, there is con- 
stantly pressing upon us the necessity of holding 
up the standards of Christian thought and motive. 
Amidst the eagerness for conquest, and the rivalry 
among the different churches and missionaries, there 
is some danger that, in his desire to count converts 



142 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

and material results, the Christian standards may be 
lowered to conform to the halting steps of those with 
whom we labor. But, just as in the field at home, 
no lasting good can come from accommodating Chris- 
tian principles to human frailty, so here the cause 
suffers whenever a zealous advocate seeks a sweep- 
ing conquest by removing the difficulties incident to 
the highest Christian ideals. There is no short cut 
to Christian attainment. The general who seeks to 
recruit his army by inviting men to a life of ease and 
idleness, will find either that men reject the invita- 
tion, or that only a worthless following rallies to his 
call. The Christian evangelist who seeks to increase 
the followers of Christ by calling the multitude to 
rally around a standard lowered to suit their selfish- 
ness and sloth, will in the end succeed in dragging the 
Christian banner in the dust, without in any way 
accomplishing the end sought. Men everywhere, in 
Japan or America, are impressed by appeals to the 
heroic and to the best within them. And here in 
this land, especially, must we insist upon this policy. 
What if at the end of the year we cannot report so 
many that have numbered themselves with us ! Here 
it is particularly true, that a few devoted, practical 
Christians, rallying around a standard that has never 
for a moment allowed its folds to be dragged in the 
mud, are worth more to the cause than a host won by 
the pitiful process of emasculating principle. For 
one, I deprecate that zeal which is not according to 
knowledge ; that fills its ranks with half -disciplined 
converts, who must in the end prove a hindrance to 



IMPRESSIONS OF OPPORTUNITIES. 143 

the cause of Christ. What was recently said by a 
prominent missionary 1 of Central Africa with refer- 
ence to the work there, applies with equal force to 
Japan. " The Church must not be depressed to a 
loAver level to meet half-way the heathenism of Africa. 
The Church must embrace the African, and raise him 
up by her sacraments and means of grace, and spread 
a network around him, and raise him up to her high 
level, not abating one jot in morality or spirituality 
of what she requires of her children at home." 

The above considerations will naturally suggest 
that patience must be one of the great needs both 
on the part of the missionary and the church that 
sends him forth. There was a time, only a few years 
ago, when Japan was eagerly adopting the customs 
of the West, that many predicted the conquest of 
Japan for Christianity in a decade. But the Japanese 
desire for everything foreign has given way to a more 
or less strong anti-foreign feeling, and the Christian 
missionary's work is made more difficult thereby. 
The dream of those days of speedy conquest is past ; 
and it is clear that the conquest of this land cannot 
be made in a day. Indeed, the most superficial ob- 
server must now see that a long process of patient 
toil is necessary before we can hope to see Japan 
standing among the Christian nations. As regards 
Universalism here, I am convinced that it can in no 
way leap to success. We must climb slowly, at times 
with weary feet, just as at home we make our ad- 
vances. Great and attractive as our faith is, much 
1 Bishop Smythies in Central Africa. 



144 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

as I believe in its moving power, I am fully per- 
suaded that Universalism has no patent right on suc- 
cess. What we gain must be gained, just as it is 
gained by others, with judicious planning, patient 
toil, and earnest prayer. I trust I shall not be mis- 
understood. No one is more hopeful of our work 
than I ; no one more appreciative of the work already 
accomplished by our church. A splendid future in- 
vites us. The field is white ; but the reaping must 
be done, and done, too, by vigorous toil, by the sweat 
of the brow, and with patience of soul. 

But this paper would hardly be a real treatment of 
needs, if I neglected to mention the financial problem. 
The Japanese regard it as very impolite to speak 
directly of money. And, whenever they are obliged 
to speak of such mundane things, they approach the 
subject by circumlocution, saying that they know 
it is a shameful matter to speak of, but, etc. But I 
have not resided long enough in Japan to have fully 
entered into the Japanese feeling in this regard, and 
may be pardoned if I speak directly about so impor- 
tant a matter as the need of funds to carry on so 
great a work as this to which we have put our hands. 
If I hesitate to speak with assurance about other 
great problems, that perplex the minds of far more 
experienced men than myself, I can at least speak 
with confidence and directness of this material aspect 
of the work. By the generous gifts of the people 
this work was undertaken, and on them it depends as 
its sphere is broadened and its necessities made ap- 
parent. At times the need is made painfully obtru- 



IMPRESSIONS OF OPPORTUNITIES. 145 

sive. Great cities lie all about us waiting for the 
new faith and life. It is absolutely sure that, if we 
had funds to undertake the work in these great cen- 
tres, we could score as great a success in them as 
in any of the fields where we have already begun. 
But, of course, we can only advance as far as our 
means will allow. In many instances it makes our 
hearts ache to see the pressing needs, and to be unable 
to supply them. It is a fact, however difficult of 
belief it may seem to our friends at home, that several 
of our students in our theological school are living 
from one year's end to the other on less than five dol- 
lars a month. By what possible process of economy 
they manage to lodge, clothe, and feed themselves on 
this mere pittance, is as great a mystery to us as to 
those who have not dwelt in this land of wonders. 
Great and urgent as the calls are in these latter days, 
we still trust that the cries which go up to our people 
from time to time, in behalf of Japan, will not be 
unheeded. 

It has long been my firm conviction that the calls 
incident to a work like this present more than an 
objective opportunity. They are to our churches, 
by the reflex principle of action, subjective benefits. 
Nothing is clearer than that the truly missionary 
church is a live church; that generous giving to a 
great cause, by the working of that divine law which 
our Lord announced, leaves us richer than before ; 
and that sacrifice and self-denial have their reward, 
even in a material way. Any successful pastor at 
home will bear witness, I am sure, to this truth* 



146 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

Clearer than ever comes the message to all our 
churches : " Go ye into all the world and preach 
the gospel ! " To heed the message of Christian 
truth is at once the duty and the privilege of our 
people. For their own sake, as well as for the sake 
of the world, they need to do this. " God might 
have sent his angels to sing his gospel through the 
world, or he might have written it on the sky, and 
made the clouds his messengers ; but we need to 
bear the responsibility of publishing that gospel." 

I am confident that the Universalist Church will 
meet its obligation, both as regards the message and 
the means by which it is to be transmitted. The 
decree of our church has gone forth, and from that 
decree there can be no appeal. We have put our 
hands to the plough, and we will not look back. 
Beholding the need, we rejoice in the opportunity 
which enables us to take part in the work by which, 
at last, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. 

Tokyo, Japan, 1893. 




REV. I, WALLACE CATE. 



THE CENTRE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 147 



IX 

THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION THE CENTRE OF 
. MISSIONARY EFFORT. 



BY REV. I. WALLACE CATE. 



When the Universalist General Convention in- 
augurated the Japan Mission there was no doubt in 
the minds of the projectors as to the end and aim of 
missionary effort. On this point there has been no 
wavering in the minds of those who were set to do 
the work. It is their endeavor first, last, and always 
to inspire men to higher living by inculcating the 
principles of the religion of Jesus Christ. But it 
may safely be said that there were no clearly defined 
notions in the minds either of the projectors or of the 
missionaries as to the special methods by which the 
work was to be accomplished. Certain general notions 
there may have been, such as generally attach to 
missionary labor in foreign lands. Anything more 
than this could hardly be expected with those about 
to launch out upon an entirely new work. Neverthe- 
less, while ideas concerning methods were ill defined, 
and while it was left largely to the missionaries to 
shape their course according to circumstances, it is 
certain that the work of the mission has developed 



148 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

in entirely unexpected directions. Such has been 
the case in the matter of the education of native 
preachers. Not that theological education of some 
sort was thought not to form naturally a part of mis- 
sionary effort, since the missionaries expected to find, 
sooner or later, co-workers among the Japanese, but 
that the amount of such work, which would be use- 
ful or necessary, must be very limited in the first 
five years of the mission's history. Certainly it was 
not thought that the education of native Christian 
preachers would occupy the greater part of the time 
and attention of the missionaries, or that such educa- 
tion would form the very centre of their missionary 
work. Yet such is the case, and to point out the 
reasons for this is the object of this paper. 

The reasons which have led the missionaries to 
place so much emphasis on the education of native 
preachers are, in general, of two kinds. First, 
reasons arising from the difficulties which stand in 
the way of the foreigner in his attempts to come into 
contact with the masses; and second, reasons based 
upon the favorable conditions brought about by the 
great advances which Japan has made in Western 
civilization and the reception of Western ideas, and 
the consequent intellectual fitness of a large number 
to deal with religious problems. 

The ordinary conception of missionary work in a 
non-Christian land involves the idea of personal con- 
tact with the masses on the part of the missionary 
himself. He is supposed to devote the greater part, 
if not the whole, of his time and energies to teaching 



THE CENTRE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 149 

the fundamental truths of Christianity, by public dis- 
course or private instruction, and thus by his own 
personal efforts among the people to form Christian 
communities. Education is thought of only as one 
of the incidents of the work, forming, as it were, one 
of the channels by which Christian ideas may find 
their way into the minds of the people. Undoubtedly 
in some lands the conditions are such as to render 
this method of missionary work altogether necessary* 
Such a method may be, and is to some extent, em- 
ployed in Japan ; and among the women it is, perhaps, 
the only method which can be used to advantage 
under present conditions. But as a general mission- 
ary policy it can scarcely be said to be the best, 
especially in a mission where the number of the 
workers is very limited. The fact that the oldest 
and strongest missions emphasize the educational 
element is a confirmation of the soundness of the 
position taken by the Universalist mission. This 
confirmation is still further strengthened by the testi- 
mony of a member of a mission which has been sev- 
eral years in the field, that the great mistake of that 
mission had been the neglect to emphasize the matter 
of Christian education ; it had trusted too largely to 
general work among the people. 

The first requisite for contact with the people is 
readiness in the use of the language. It goes without 
saying, that, if the missionary is to communicate re- 
ligious or moral ideas, there must be a medium of 
communication. But those who have made them- 
selves acquainted with the conditions of work in 



150 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

Japan are aware that the acquisition of the language 
is accomplished only with the greatest difficulty. 
Why this is so it is not necessary to state here. It 
will be quite sufficient to say that among the foreign 
missionaries only in extremely rare cases is the 
language spoken well; a few speak it indifferently 
well, and the great majority have such a limited 
knowledge of it as to be able to make little use of it 
in preaching or general religious instruction. A 
certain degree of proficiency is indeed necessary in 
order to carry on successfully the ordinary business 
of the mission; but the amount sufficient for that 
would be quite insufficient to enable a man to deal 
with theological and philosophical problems, or pose 
as a public speaker. It is to be understood that the 
'purpose here is not to minimize the importance of 
getting the language. Indeed, the more one has of 
the language the better. But the purpose is to point 
out the fact, that the difficulty of the language is 
one of the greatest hindrances to direct mission slyj 
work, and makes it desirable that such work should 
be left as much as possible to the Japanese. 

Another requisite for successful missionary work 
among the masses, is the power to enter sympathet- 
ically into the life of the people. Like St. Paul, a 
man must be "all things to all men." It is extremely 
difficult to do this in Japan. In general, it may be 
said that the difficulty arises from the fact that the 
missionary is an Occidental, and those whom he pro- 
poses to teach are Orientals. This means, that, in all 
but their common humanity, teacher and learner are 



THE CENTRE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 151 

as far apart as the west from the east. They are dif- 
ferent in race, in language, in mode of thought, and 
in traditions. All this may be true independently 
of the degree of civilization reached by either party. 
It is not merely a question of getting down to the 
level of the Oriental, but it is a question of getting 
across a gulf which separates him from the mission- 
ary. The missionary cannot give his thoughts in his 
own way and according to his own traditions, but in 
the Japanese way, and in the light of Japanese tra- 
ditions. There must be not merely a translation, but 
an interpretation, and this often amounts to a trans- 
formation. In order to do this, the missionary must 
understand sympathetically those whom he teaches. 
He must be able to put himself at their point of 
view. Undoubtedly this difficulty would largely be 
obviated by a thorough knowledge of the language, 
for the traditions and life of a people are bound up 
in its language. But this is the work of years ; for 
it means not only the mastery of the vernacular, but 
also the mastery of the Chinese accretions, by which 
the language has been enriched, and from which the 
Japanese have drawn most of their philosophical 
ideas. But even with such a knowledge of the lan- 
guage and traditions, the success of the missionary 
must depend to a great extent upon his power of 
adapting himself to the traditions and thoughts of 
the people. It will readily be seen, therefore, that 
great difficulties stand in the way of the missionary 
who desires to come directly in contact with the 
people. 



152 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

Nevertheless, the Universalist mission was begun, 
and is now carried on, in accordance with the historic 
custom of Christian missionary work ; namely, the 
gathering of Christian communities and the estab- 
lishment of churches. In fact, it is the only liberal 
mission which thoroughly believes in the policy of 
church building, and the only liberal mission that is 
fully and squarely committed to such a policy. And 
if it were necessary for the missionaries to do this 
themselves, even if the difficulties were greater than 
they are, still they would feel bound to meet and 
surmount the difficulties, and work as they could for 
the establishment of Christian churches. But the 
missionary is not required to do this. In the condi- 
tions which exist in Japan is found a ready solution 
of the problem ; which is, to intrust the work of 
evangelization almost entirely to the care of the 
Japanese. To those unacquainted with the condi- 
tions this may seem a poor disposition of the case. 
But provided those can be found able to do the work 
well, or able to do it better than the missionary, even 
though it should fall below the level of pastoral work 
in a Christian country, it would certainly seem to be 
a reasonable solution of the problem. The natural 
leaders of the Japanese are to be found among the 
Japanese, and no one sees this more clearly than 
the Japanese themselves. They are restive under 
foreign leadership ; and the condition of the fitness 
of the Japanese being fulfilled, it is better for the 
missionary to be content to be the power behind the 
throne, rather than the power upon the throne. 



THE CENTRE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 153 

But can men be found fitted to do the work ? Most 
certainly they can be found. There are many young 
men in Japan to-day who, with the proper education 
and theological training, would be well fitted for the 
work. There are hundreds engaged in the work now. 
A fair proportion of these are eminently successful. 
The great majority are able to do the work better 
than the missionary can do it. The general qualifi- 
cations required for the work in Japan are not differ- 
ent from those required in Christian lands; namely, 
intellectual power, personal religious conviction and 
religious enthusiasm, the realization that Christianity 
is needed by the people, and the power to present its 
truths upon the platform in a convincing and forcible 
manner. These qualities are found to a remarkable 
degree in the Japanese of the rising generation. The 
experience of the writer is not great, but it is his con- 
viction that few people surpass the Japanese in readi- 
ness in public speech. Their religious enthusiasm is 
often surprising. Their intellectual power is good, 
and their intellectual life has been greatly stimulated 
by the influx of Western ideas and their absorption 
by the student classes. Not the least element of this 
stimulating influence is Christianity itself. It could 
not well be otherwise, since Western literature is 
strongly tinctured with Christian ideas. This has 
served to create to some extent a Christian atmos- 
phere. As a result young men of good ability may 
be found willing to identify themselves with the 
Christian cause. 

The material being at hand then, it would seem the 



154 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

part of wisdom to make the most of it. But it is 
plain that, if the dissemination of Christianity among 
the people is to be intrusted to native workers, those 
workers must receive a training suited to that end. 
That is, there must be a school for the education of 
preachers and pastors. The need of such a school is 
not less urgent in Japan than in America. The in- 
tellectual forces which work against the teacher of 
Christianity in Japan are substantially the same as in 
America, and are all the more potent since Christian- 
ity is comparatively new. In America materialism 
has to make its way against a strongly intrenched 
Christianity. In Japan the situation is reversed. 
The controlling power is materialistic, and it is the 
difficult task to overcome it. Hence the special need 
of educated, well-trained preachers. To ignore this 
phase of missionary work is greatly to miscalculate 
the mental activity of the people and to invite ridi- 
cule. The Japanese are on the alert. They are 
disposed to question, weigh, and measure, and the 
doctrines which they accept must appeal to their 
reason. In America many become Christian not so 
much by a process of reasoning, as by the Christian 
momentum given to them in early life by home in- 
struction and the prevailing Christian influences. To 
become a Christian is only to recognize the power of 
elements that have long been a part of the life. With 
the Japanese it is quite different. To become a 
Christian with him is to receive an entirely new ele- 
ment into his life. He has no Christian training, no 
Christian traditions, no Christian predilections. To 



THE CENTRE OF MISSIONARY EFFOBT. • 155 

meet these conditions the preacher must not only 
have faith, but also the reasons for the faith that is in 
him, and be able to give them convincingly. He can- 
not be indifferent to the intellectual forces which 
work against him ; for it is his set task to overcome 
prejudices, intellectual and otherwise, and persuade 
men of the reasonableness and usefulness of the 
Christian religion. The power to do this will come 
in a large degree from a thorough grounding in the 
history of Christianity and the principles which un- 
derlie it, such a grounding as can be got in a well- 
equipped theological school. 

The realization of the difficulties which beset the 
foreigner in his intercourse with the people, and 
the consequent need of trained native preachers, was 
early impressed upon the minds of the missionaries. 
And so it happened that the very first movement in 
the direction of distinctive missionary work was the 
establishment of a theological school. At first it was 
carried on in a very imperfect and irregular way, and 
with but one or two. students, but gradually taking 
the shape of a regularly organized school with a tol- 
erably well outlined curriculum and the full number 
of classes. It is not to be supposed, however, that 
by establishing the school all the difficulties of mis- 
sionary work have been avoided. Indeed, there are 
many and grave difficulties connected with it. As 
theological education was not even dreamed of as 
forming a prominent part of the mission work, the 
workers were chosen for general missionary work, 
and not for theological professors. Consequently, 



156 * OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

they found themselves obliged by the exigencies of 
the work to occupy a position which, under ordinary 
circumstances, they could not have been persuaded to 
take. It is scarcely necessary to call attention to the 
fact that, in order to maintain a fair grade of instruc- 
tion under such conditions, requires a tremendous 
amount of labor on the part of the teacher, and the 
burden is not lightened by the fact that Japanese 
students demand as much or more from the teacher 
as any class of students in the world. Neither need 
any reflecting man be told that only with the great- 
est difficulty can two or three men, even though well 
equipped for the work, carry on a theological school 
with the ordinary number of classes. The instructors 
in our theological schools at home teach from ten to 
fifteen hours a week, and give their whole energies 
to the work. The instructors in the Japanese Uni- 
versalist Theological School teach the same number 
of hours, besides attending to innumerable details of 
mission work, daily becoming more and more compli- 
cated. Neither do all the difficulties and discourage- 
ments spring from the limitations of the missionaries. 
Perhaps the most saddening and disheartening cir- 
cumstance is, that what seems an undue proportion 
of those who enter the school are at length found 
without the consecration, the singleness of purpose, 
or the depth of character, sufficient to hold them to 
the attainment of their avowed object. But those 
who were appointed to carry on the mission were 
not so bound down to preconceived notions of the 
work, or so unable to adapt themselves to circum- 



THE CENTRE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 157 

stances, that they could not willingly turn their 
hands to any labor which the welfare of the mis- 
sion demanded. They have schooled themselves to 
meet difficulties without dismay; to work amid dis- 
couragements without being discouraged ; hoping, 
believing, that the issue will be victory. With Paul, 
they are " pressed on every side, yet not straitened ; 
perplexed, yet not in despair; pursued, yet not for- 
saken ; smitten down, yet not destroyed." 

But in the midst of toil, discouragements, and dif- 
ficulties, the missionaries are sustained by the firm 
conviction that theological education is a prime ne- 
cessity, and strengthened by the thought that, when 
the wheat has been separated from the chaff, and an 
earnest, able, and thoughtful preacher, armed with 
the br.oad and reasonable teachings of Universalism, 
has been sent into the field, their power has been in- 
creased many fold. They feel that to be able to pro- 
duce such a worker is worth the expenditure of much 
energy and patience, and a rich compensation for the 
discouragements and perplexities involved. And 
when such men can be sent into the various cities 
and towns throughout Japan, the school becomes the 
centre of missionary effort, not only in the sense that 
upon it is concentrated the greater part of the time 
and energies of the missionaries, but also in the sense 
that from it emanates the power exerted by the mis- 
sion throughout the country. The school forms, as 
it were, an electric centre by which living messen- 
gers are charged with the energy and power of the 
doctrine of God's universal love, and sent to pro- 



158 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

claim it throughout the land. Every man thus 
charged is a light set among the people, radiating 
the helpful and reasonable teaching of our faith. 
But in order to fully realize the importance of this, 
the fact must be kept in mind that such a one adds 
strength to the work of the mission, not simply be- 
cause he is one more worker added to the number 
already in the field, but because he belongs to and 
understands the people among whom he works. 

Enough has been written to show how important a 
place theological education holds in the work of the 
mission. It seems clear that the future power and 
prosperity of Universalism in Japan depend largely 
upon the training its preachers receive in the theo- 
logical school. This being the case, the importance 
of the school can scarcely be overestimated, and no 
effort should be spared to render it more efficient 
year by year, by re-enforcing, its corps of instructors 
and improving its conveniences. To accomplish this 
it is only necessary that it should hold the place in 
the regard of the Universalists of America which is 
demanded by the importance of the work it has to 
do ; and the importance of that work is not less than 
that which is being done by Tufts, Canton, and Lom- 
bard. Give it the efficiency of these, and the Uni- 
versalist Theological School of Japan will easily 
stand, as it ought to stand, as it must stand if the 
mission is to do its best work, among the foremost of 
Christian schools in Japan. 

Tokyo, June 22, 1893. 




IISS MARGARET C. SCHOULER. 



THE WOMEN 'OF JAPAN. 159 



X 



THE WOMEN OE JAPAN — SCHOOLS FOE, 

GIELS. 



BY MISS MARGARET C. SCHOULER. 



Ever since our little band of missionaries came to 
Japan, one problem has constantly confronted us, 
which is, perhaps, of all others, the most difficult of 
solution ; viz., how to reach the women and to Chris- 
tianize them ! 

We believe that the moral status of every nation 
depends largely upon the character of its women, 
and more especially upon that of its mothers ; and 
we hold, therefore, that if the Japanese people as a 
nation are to become Christians, it is necessary to 
reach far down into the very stronghold of the family 
life, and sow there the seeds of Christian truth. 
This must be done before we can expect any lasting 
results of the great work, which we, in common with 
all the other missionaries here, have so much at heart. 

This stronghold is the woman, who, in Japan, is 
almost universally destined to motherhood, such an 
anomaly as an unmarried woman having been almost 
unknown until within the last twenty years, since 
the establishment of mission and government schools 
for girls. 



160 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

In the mission schools one finds Christian women 
employed as teachers who are unmarried. Also one 
meets here, occasionally, young women who have 
received the benefits of a broader education in Amer- 
ica and Europe, and who, having a career in life open 
to them, are still unmarried. But these are excep- 
tions. The great mass of the women marry, and 
they are still uneducated, except in what is consid- 
ered by this people necessary for a woman to know. 
This is, of course, very meagre ; and although the 
position of woman in Japan has never been so de- 
graded as that of her sisters in the different parts of 
Asia, yet, when compared with that of her Christian 
sisters in America and Europe, her condition is little 
better than that of a slave. 

Mr. Basil Chamberlain, in his " Things Japanese," 
writing of the status of woman here, says : " Japanese 
women are most kind, gentle, pretty. But the way 
in which they are treated by the men has hitherto 
been such as might cause a pang to any generous 
European heart. No wonder that some of them are 
at last endeavoring to emancipate themselves. A 
woman's lot is summed up in what are termed ' the 
three obediences : obedience, while yet unmarried, to 
a father ; obedience, when married, to a husband and 
that husband's parents ; obedience, when widowed, 
to a son.' At the present moment — 1890 — the 
greatest duchess or marchioness in the land is still 
her husband's drudge. She fetches and carries for 
him, bows down humbly in the hall when my lord 
sallies forth on his walks abroad, waits upon him at 
meals, and may be divorced at his good pleasure." 



THE WOMEN OF JAPAN. 161 

Some idea may be obtained from this, as to what 
the position of the Japanese woman was and is out- 
side of the small circle of Christians, — some seventy- 
five thousand in all. As to the amount of education 
formerly considered necessary, it consisted in learn- 
ing the details connected with " the three obe- 
diences," as given in a treatise called " The Greater 
Learning for Women," by a celebrated Japanese 
moralist, Kaibara. 

When, for centuries, these ideas have been incul- 
cated into the minds of the women, what has been 
the result? A race of women, patient, humble, long- 
suffering, accepting contentedly the position accorded 
them. The long life of self-effacement and self- 
renunciation has brought with it a sweetness of 
disposition which commands the admiration and love 
of her Christian sister ; while, on the other hand, the 
women of Japan regard the Christian woman, with 
her freedom, her education, and above all the equal- 
ity with which they see she is treated by her husband 
and brothers, as a wonderful creature, to be looked 
up to as a child looks up to its mother, for help, for 
sympathy, for love. 

Like all new workers in any field of labor, we 
brought with us high hopes, great enthusiasm, and 
strong courage. Of course we expected to find 
obstacles ; but their nature could hardly be realized. 
We had been told before coming that missionaries in 
Japan suffered few hardships, for we were coming to 
a country where we could have everything just as 
comfortable as at home. And this we found to be a 



162 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

fact. In all the established missions here, we found 
the missionaries living in pleasant, comfortable, for- 
eign houses, as people of ordinary means would live 
in America. 

As to the Japanese people, we knew that they were 
to a considerable degree civilized. There are many 
who are very poor, it is true ; but one never sees here 
the miserable squalor which one sees among the poor 
of our large cities at home, and we are told that such 
wretchedness does not exist. 

We found the people of Japan a cheerful, warm- 
hearted, kindly race, and more than all, the most 
polite and ceremonious nation under the sun. 

But although we can live here so comfortably 
as far as the necessaries of life are concerned, and 
although we have to do with a thoughtful and pro- 
gressive people, there are numerous difficulties in the 
way of missionary work in Japan, which require all 
the consecration, all the strength, both mental and 
physical, that one can possibly bring to the service. 

First, the climate, which makes it difficult, and in 
most cases an impossibility, for foreigners to do more 
than two-thirds of the maximum amount of work 
done at home, even when he feels perfectly well. 
Professor Chamberlain, writing on this subject, says, 
" The climate of Japan is stated by the highest medi- 
cal authority to be excellent for children, less so 
for adults; the enormous amount of moisture render- 
ing it depressing, especially to persons of nervous 
temperament and to consumptive persons. Various 
causes, physical and social, contribute to make Japan 



THE WOMEN OF JAPAN. 163 

a less healthy country for the female residents of the 
European race than for the men." Especially does 
this statement apply to those engaged in the work of 
education. 

Second, the language presents almost insurmount- 
able obstacles, not to be realized till one attempts the 
study of it; but it must be mastered before the most 
efficient missionary work can be done, especially 
among the women. 

The Rev. Dr. Gordon, in his book, " An American 
Missionary in Japan," says, " It will not be thought 
strange, then, that one of the most experienced and 
scholarly of the missionaries recently gave to a com- 
pany of his younger associates the following recipe 
for ' mastering the language,' ' Stay twenty years in 
the country.' " He also says that the Protestant mis- 
sionaries of Central Japan have unanimously resolved 
that " whether we regard the missionary's health, his 
efficiency as a worker, or his ability to work harmo- 
niously with his Japanese brethren, it is our opinion 
that his highest and most permanent success demands 
that, for a period of at least three years, he should not 
be expected to take any responsible charge, but 
should give his whole time and strength to the work 
of securing a knowledge of the language." He says 
that without this knowledge of the language, and, 
through the language, of the people themselves, one 
cannot avoid making many blunders ; and thus new- 
comers often unintentionally grossly insult their 
Japanese friends, undoing, in this way, all the good 
intended to be done. Indeed, a volume might be 



164 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR 21ISSI0NS. 

written on the difficulties of the language alone ; but 
as we have neither time nor space here, we will pass 
on to a third difficulty. 

This is the spirit of conservatism which has taken 
possession of the people during the last five and six 
years. In all great movements, people are apt to go 
from one extreme to the other, whether the case has 
to do with individuals or with nations at large. When 
Japan opened her ports to the Western world, and in- 
tercourse with Western nations awakened her to a 
realization of the fact that " Japan was not the big- 
gest fish in the sea, but only a very small one," as 
one of my pupils said to me, the eagerness with which 
the people grasped everything new — European dress, 
manners, education, and, in fact, all the elements of 
Western civilization — is only paralleled by the sud- 
den and complete reaction against many of those very 
things which at the present time prevails. 

The former is known as the " Western craze," the 
latter as the anti-foreign movement. According to 
Professor Chamberlain, the court ordered foreign 
dresses from Berlin in the year 1886, and on November 
1st of the same year the Empress appeared for the 
first time at a public entertainment in foreign dress. 
A little later — 1886-87 — her Majesty issued a proc- 
lamation, in which she recommended the women of 
the empire, at their convenience, gradually to adopt 
the dress worn by the women of the most enlightened 
nations. Also, in the autumn of 1886, the students 
of the State Normal School, by direction of the Depart- 
ment of Education, adopted foreign dress. European 



THE WOMEN OF JAPAN. 165 

etiquette was introduced at court, foreign music, 
dancing, and games were taught. Following the ex- 
ample of the Empress, many of the women of the 
nobility, and among the wealthy of the higher middle 
class, also the wives of government officials, wore 
foreign dress. 

At this time the mission schools were filled to over- 
flowing, and the study of the English language was 
at the height of popularity ; so much so that a foreign 
gentleman, a resident of Tokyo, wrote to friends in 
England, saying that at least a hundred ladies might 
be usefully employed in giving instruction in English 
in various localities of the empire. 

In 1887 the reaction began, — though it was hardly 
noticeable till the summer of 1888, — after the close of 
the Conference for Treaty Revision held in Tokyo by 
the seventeen Treaty Powers. When Count Inone, 
at that time Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, 
failed to carry through the negotiations and resigned, 
so great was the disappointment of the people, that it 
was manifested by a return to many of the ancient 
customs. 

In the spring of 1890, when we reached Japan, this 
reaction, or anti-foreign movement, was at floodtide. 
We saw no women in foreign dress. Foreign music, 
dancing, and even foreign education as far as the 
girls were concerned, had become unpopular. The 
schools, particularly the government schools for girls, 
were severely criticised by the Japanese newspapers, 
which represented that, under the new system, 
the girls were " rude, conceited, and forward." Of 



166 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

course, to a people so conservative as the Japanese, 
these young women, educated somewhat according 
to Western ide.as, must have seemed so, particularly 
as these girls carried themselves erect, looked one 
squarely in the face, and in many cases conversed 
freely. 

Mission schools that had enrolled pupils to the 
number of three or four hundred, now found these 
numbers reduced more than one-half. Especially 
was this true of the girls' schools, and the govern- 
ment schools fared no better; and at the present time, 
the whole number of girls in the empire receiving any 
education at all is only about one-third of what it 
was a year ago. Also, at the present time, many of 
the girls in the mission schools are dropping the study 
of English, and taking only the Japanese studies. 
Thus it would seem that the anti-foreign movement 
is particularly averse to the education of girls. 

In the face of all these difficulties we set about 
establishing a school for both young men and young 
women. On account of the conservative movement, 
we were obliged to proceed very cautiously ; and the 
school was advertised as a purely secular one for the 
study of the English language only, using this as a 
key — as nearly all the missionaries here have done — 
to unlock the door which was to open the way to a 
higher and more distinctively Christian work in the 
future. 

Accordingly, the school was opened in October, 
1890, under the name of the " School for Liberal 
English." Knowing the intense prejudice of the 



THE WOMEN OF JAPAN. 167 

Japanese against any kind of social intercourse be- 
tween the young men and women, we arranged to 
have the classes for the women in the morning 
and those for the young men in the afternoon. 
The customs of antiquity do not allow men and 
women to sit in the same apartment, to keep their 
wearing apparel in the same place, or to trans- 
mit to each other anything directly from hand to 
hand. These customs are, of course, much less 
stringent at the present day, chiefly owing to the in- 
fluence of Christianity, the family life of the Chris- 
tians here being a " constant object lesson to the rest 
of the people. "As time went on, so very few young 
women applied for admission, and as the number of 
young men was quite large, and the degree of attain- 
ment in English very varied, it became an impossi- 
bility to grade them, and the young men began to 
come in the morning, and the result was that the 
young women — five altogether — gradually dropped 
out, and the whole time was given to the young men. 
In the fall of 1891 the school was reopened, but no 
girls applied, and the number of young men con- 
stantly increased until, in midwinter, we had about 
thirty-five, and at the close of the school year in 
June, 1892, the number of students was twenty-eight. 
This was considered as doing remarkably well ; for 
they were a very good class of young men, all the 
way from seventeen to thirty years of age, some pre- 
paring for the Imperial University, some in the 
higher Commercial College, one or two soldiers, and 
one already a lawyer. 



168 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

The school was just coming to be known in the 
city, and, had it been continued another year, would 
probably have numbered more pupils than one foreign 
instructor of English could well handle. 

To the question, " Why do you study English ? " 
these young men invariably replied, " Because it will 
help me in my business." None of them came with 
the intention of looking into our religion, though many 
of them became interested in Chris tianity, and a few 
became members of our church. 

So this plan to reach the young women failed, and 
resulted in an English school for young men, in which 
Christianity was only indirectly taught. 

As so many ways were open to reach the men be- 
sides the English school, it was thought best to abol- 
ish it, and try some other way for reaching the women. 
We still thought a school the best thing, but on a 
different basis. This time the school was advertised 
as solely for girls, and as a mission school in which 
Christianity would be taught, also English, Chinese, 
and industrial arts, such as knitting, sewing, and em- 
broidery. It was opened September, 1892, having 
been largely advertised and the tuition fee being 
merely nominal. Notwithstanding what seemed to 
be favorable conditions, the applicants were very few, 
and our number has never been above ten. But they 
were all very intelligent girls, and, with one excep- 
tion, from the families of the higher middle class, four 
of them being the daughters of army officers ; three, 
daughters of merchants ; one, a daughter of a secre- 
tary in the House of Peers ; one, the wife of a vice- 



THE WOMEN OF JAPAN. 169 

consul to China ; and one, a servant in a family near 
the school. Four of them were very young, about 
twelve or thirteen, the other four from seventeen to 
twenty-one years of age, and the two oldest ones were 
already quite advanced in English. 

As time went on they all became quite interested 
in the Bible lessons. They were studying the " Life 
of Christ " as given in the Gospels. It is written out 
for them in the simplest English possible, and then 
given both in the English and Japanese. One by one 
the younger girls began to leave ; and though they 
gave various excuses, such as sickness, going to live 
in another province, etc., yet with one exception we 
learned that "the parents did not like Christianity." 
So in April our number was reduced to five, and last 
month — May — the youngest and brightest of the 
little ones left. We had reached in the "Life of 
Christ " a lesson on the " Denial of Peter." During 
the interpretation of the lesson the tears were rolling 
down her cheeks. We appeared to take no notice of 
it, as it was evident she did not wish us to. The 
next day she was absent, but came regularly till the 
day for the Bible lesson, when, on asking the reason 
for her absence, we were told that " O Kana San's 
parents did not like Christianity." The following 
week she came for her books, and said she was going 
to live in another part of the city with her uncle and 
aunt, and go to a school where only sewing was taught. 
As it was the hour for the singing lesson, she was 
asked if she would not select a hymn for all to sing. 
The hymn she selected was " Stand up, stand up for 



170 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

Jesus." One cannot help thinking that che seed in 
this case has been sown in good ground, and we trust 
that God will permit it to yield its fruit in His own 
good time. 

At the time of writing, our girls' school numbers 
only four, the three oldest girls and one of the 
younger. The former have all asked to unite with 
the church, but are waiting for the consent of their 
parents, who, it seems, have an objection to the rite 
of baptism, which is not easily overcome. As nearly 
as can be ascertained they have some superstitious 
ideas connected with it, but joining the church seems, 
to their minds, like joining some sort of a society, as 
a temperance society, and that offers no serious ob- 
jections. So while they are willing that their daugh- 
ters should become church members, they object to 
their being baptized. We can only wait patiently 
and try to overcome these prejudices. 

The question now arises, whether the school shall 
be given up. This, it seems to us, must be answered 
by our good people at home, who have given their 
money so generously for the support of this mission. 
It has failed to interest a large number of women, 
and has made no converts among them this first year 
of trial. But we must remember that the Japanese 
people, at the present time at least, are not hungering 
or thirsting for religion, that this indifference is ex- 
ceedingly difficult to overcome, and indeed, a work 
written by one of the Japanese professors in the Im- 
perial University against Christianity has not been 
without its influence among the people of the better 




PUPILS OF GIRLS' SCHOOL AT TOKYO. 



THE WOMEN OF JAPAN. 171 

classes. We must also remember that other Chris- 
tian sects here have made very few converts during 
the last three years, in comparison with the numbers 
of former years ; that the English language, which is, 
at present, our chief means of reaching the people, is 
now unfashionable ; that a serious objection is the fact 
that the girls' school has always been in the same 
building with the theological school. 

Let us take into consideration also the fact that 
the first Protestant missionaries, who came to this 
country in 1859, worked five years before they bap- 
tized a single convert, and that it was not until 1872 
— thirteen years after their coming — that their first 
church was established, and then with a membership 
of only seven men, no women at all. 

Reading of these things, one realizes the slow 
and patient efforts necessary to insure success. We 
know that in those days there was an edict against 
Christianity, and that to become a Christian meant 
persecution and oftentimes death. Professor Cham- 
berlain, writing of the physical characteristics of the 
Japanese race, classes among them indifference to 
death, as he says they have a less sensitive nervous 
organization than Europeans. He also adds that the 
opinions and beliefs of Buddhism may have had some 
influence in the matter. Be this as it may, the pres- 
ent apathy of the people is as great an obstacle in the 
path of the missionary to-day as the edict against 
Christianity was in former days. 

Until we have a knowledge of the language, we 
who work among the women, at least, must be content 



172 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

with small results ; for, though large numbers may be 
a sign of popularity, they are by no means a sign of 
true and lasting success. Is not the work important 
enough to warrant its being continued ? We have 
made a beginning, though a very small one. We 
have one young woman in the church already, and 
three more hoping to become members. 1 These four 
will form the nucleus of our future work among the 
women ; and we have for our encouragement the fact, 
that, if a woman once becomes converted, she remains, 
with rare exceptions, steadfast and loyal to her faith, 
while the young men, judging from our experience 
with them — and our experience is the rule, not the 
exception — are like " the uncertain glories of an 
April day." 

We hope, therefore, that the Girls' School may be 
continued, even if the results are small ; and, without 
losing courage, let us labor and reverently wait for the 
success which we believe will crown our efforts ; for 
we are the bearers to this people of a message broader 
and nobler than any which they have yet received ; 
and, as surely as there is a God who loves all his chil- 
dren, so surely will he not withhold from these this 
message, by which alone will their highest welfare 
and happiness be secured. 

Tokyo, June, 1893. 

1 Since the above was written, two of the young women have 
been received into the church by the rite of baptism. 




EDWIN C. SWEETSER, D.D. 



CHRISTIANITY A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 173 



XI 

CHRISTIANITY A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 



BY E. C. SWEETSER, D.D. 



It is an historical fact that, at about the time 
which is now used by all Christian nations as a 
chronological reckoning point, there was a widespread 
expectation that some person was about to appear 
upon earth, who would establish a world-wide and 
exceedingly glorious kingdom, over which, everlast- 
ingly, he would rule with a peaceful and beneficent 
sway. Principally held by the Jews, this remarkable 
expectation was by no means confined to them, but 
was shared with more or less assurance by many 
people of different nations throughout the extent of 
the Roman Empire. 

It is also an historical fact, that, at about the same 
time, there was born, in the country called Palestine, 
a child, who grew up in the village of Nazareth as the 
reputed offspring of Joseph and Mary, a humble 
couple of working people ; and who, when he came to 
man's estate, and was about thirty years old, left the 
home of his childhood, and assumed the office and 
work of a public teacher, gathering around him a 
little company of disciples, with whom he travelled 



174 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

from place to place, preaching the doctrines which are 
now known as the gospel, and obtaining a reputation 
as a miracle worker such as never had been seen be- 
fore. He was popularly known as Jesus of Nazareth ; 
and such was the excitement which he produced by 
his preaching, and by the wonderful works which 
he was believed to perform, that the populace began 
to question whether in him they might not find the 
one for whom they long had waited, the expected 
Messiah, the prophesied King. 

At the beginning of his public ministry he was 
baptized in the river Jordan by John the Baptist, 
who then confidently declared him to be the Mes- 
siah, the Lamb of God, who should take away the 
sin of the world. 

But John, not long afterwards, was thrown into 
prison for his boldness in preaching against Herod 
the tetrarch ; and while there, he began to doubt the 
correctness of his prophecy. Made morbid by his 
close confinement, and being naturally of an impet- 
uous and impatient disposition, he became discon- 
tented and inclined to despondency, because Jesus 
did not adopt such methods and accomplish such an 
immediate and wide-sweeping reform as he had enthu- 
siastically expected of him. So, sending two of his 
personal disciples to Jesus, he asked him, through 
them, the pointed question, " Art thou he that should 
come, or look we for another ? " And although, 
because of the spirit in which it was asked, Jesus 
administered a gentle rebuke to his questioner, yet 
the inquiry itself was a very important one. If 



CHRISTIANITY A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 175 

offered in the right spirit, it would have been, as it 
now is, an entirely proper one. 

Indeed, so vast is the import of this question, and 
so closely is it connected with the deepest interests 
of mankind, that to-day, among all of the important 
questions which are agitating the minds of men, there 
is none more deserving of serious attention and pro- 
found meditation. Was Jesus of Nazareth the world's 
true Messiah ? Was he the Christ, the heaven-born 
one, the true Teacher, Example, and Saviour of men, 
than whom no other need be looked for, because no 
higher and better could possibly be ? Is the religion 
which he established the final religion, the one which 
is destined to be universal, because it, and it only, is 
perfectly adapted to the wants of mankind, and offers 
them all the salvation they need ? 

In so stating the question, we indicate the line of 
argument by which it may be truly answered. For 
if the Christian religion is not perfectly adapted to 
the wants of mankind, if in any respect it is defec- 
tive and cannot afford the full salvation which hu- 
man nature stands in need of, then surely it must 
pass away. If Jesus of Nazareth was not perfectly 
qualified to be the religious Teacher and Saviour of 
all men, if in any particular he fell short of the re- 
quirements which humanity sets up for its universal 
redeemer, then he must be set aside, and we must 
look for some other who has not yet appeared, to fill 
the position which his followers have claimed for 
him. 

That which is not perfect must inevitably give 



176 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

way to that which more nearly approaches perfection, 
till that which is perfect shall have finally come. 
Such is the eternal law by which religions, like all 
other things, are regulated in their inception and 
growth and decay. The Finnish poem, " Kalewala," 
tells how the ancient god whom the Finns had wor- 
shipped, entered his canoe and paddled northward to 
the wastes of eternal snow and silence when he heard 
of the birth of Jesus Christ; and the fable is based 
upon an inexorable truth which belongs to the very 
course of nature. Every imperfect religion must 
vanish before the perfect one, and every imperfect 
religious teacher must in due season give place to 
the faultless one : for the expectation expressed in 
the Baptist's question was founded on eternal prin- 
ciples, and was sure to be realized in the fulness of 
time. If we have not the true religion now, we are 
justified in seeking and expecting a better one ; and 
if Jesus was not the true Messiah, we have no 
rational choice but to look for one still. Other- 
wise, we must give up our faith in the principle of 
progress, and declare that the world's hope of a 
Saviour is vain. 

How, then, shall we decide the question ? What 
tests shall we apply ? What kind of religion is de- 
manded by humanity ? What requirements must be 
met by the religion which shall finally be universal ? 

In the first place, it must teach the truth, and 
nothing but the truth, which human nature has need 
of, in regard to all subjects of a distinctively reli- 
gious or ethical character. Human nature as such, 



CHRISTIANITY A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. Ill 

in all races of men, has certain religious and ethical 
needs which nothing but the truth can satisfy. It 
cries out for the truth in regard to its own origin 
and duty and destiny. Its intellectual faculty de- 
mands true information as to the primary cause of all 
things. Its devotional faculty equally demands a 
true object of worship. Its moral sense demands a 
perfect moral law. Its sense of sin demands an as- 
surance of forgiveness. And its very selfhood cries 
out for a revelation as to whether the grave ends 
all, and, if not, what prospect lies beyond it. Any 
religious system, to become universal, must satisfy 
these innate and ineradicable requirements of human 
nature the wide world over. It must offer the truth 
which is needed to meet these requirements, not only 
by some men, but by all men — truth which shall 
meet the need of the most uncivilized races in so 
far as they can comprehend it, and which shall be 
sufficient at the same time for the most civilized 
people — truth which a child can appropriate accord- 
ing to his capacity, and which is ample for the ne- 
cessity of the most learned philosopher. It need 
not answer every question which any one may ask 
as to the details of theology, or of casuistry, or of 
destiny; but it must give such comprehensive truth 
upon each of these subjects, that human nature can 
rest in it with the assurance that it covers all possi- 
ble details, and can never be disproved or shaken. 

Moreover, it must not only present the truth to the 
minds, and the hearts, and the consciences of mankind, 
but it must furnish practical evidence of the truth of 



178 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

its teachings. It must commend the truth of its doc- 
trines by facts of a corresponding nature, which can 
be seen and experienced and become matters of his- 
tory. In other words, it must furnish " signs " which 
to the common sense of mankind will establish its 
verity. Abstract doctrines, however true, are not 
enough. Ordinary human nature cannot grasp them 
with certainty without some assistance of an objective 
description. And even if it could, it would still need 
a religion of a practical character. No religion will 
ever command universal acceptance which does not 
show experimentally that its doctrines are in touch 
with life, and consequently have virtue in them. 

Now, how does Christianity meet these require- 
ments ? Does it answ r er the call ? Most assuredly 
it does. For consider what its teachings are. 

It teaches that there is one God, the Creator of all 
things ; an invisible, spiritual, personal Being, self- 
existent and eternal, of infinite wisdom and power 
and holiness, of whose creative activity and intelli- 
gent purpose the visible universe is a manifestation. 
It refers all things to him as the first great cause, 
and accounts for their marvellous complexity and 
harmony, as well as for their seeming discords, by 
saying that his ways are not as our ways, nor his 
thoughts as our thoughts; but that they are high 
above us, as the heavens are above the earth, so that 
when we cannot understand him it is because " He 
in His own light shrouds Him." 

It says that this God who created the universe is 
the loving Father of all mankind, infinite in goodness 



CHRISTIANITY A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 179 

as in the rest of his attributes, loving all men alike 
with impartial benevolence, and desiring their highest 
welfare ; so that even when they sin against him and 
make it needful for him to punish them, his pun- 
ishments are invariably meant for their benefit ; and 
that whenever they repent towards him and seek his 
forgiveness, he is more willing to grant it than they 
to receive. 

It teaches that he has made of one blood all 
nations of men who dwell on all the face of the 
earth, and that, being his children, they are "con- 
sequently brethren, members of one great human 
family, without regard to locality or color or lan- 
guage, or any differences of belief, or of manners and 
customs. 

Such being its theology and its anthropology, it 
sums up the whole ethical duty of man in the two 
great commandments, — to love God with heart and 
mind and strength, and to love other people as one's 
self. 

Furthermore, it teaches that man's life in this 
world is not all, but that beyond the grave is another 
world, into which all men are ushered by death, a 
world in which they can die no more ; and that there 
God will so deal with them that at last all will be- 
come holy. Sin and sorrow will be no more ; right- 
eousness and peace and joy will reign in every human 
soul, and God himself be all in all. 

Such, in brief, are the doctrines of the Christian 
religion in reference to the principal subjects con- 
cerning which, as religious beings, mankind in all 



180 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

ages have yearned for the truth. Such are the 
doctrines which Jesus taught. Is anything better 
conceivable ? anything more satisfactory ? anything 
better fitted to meet the demands of man's reason, 
of his devotional impulse, of his ethical faculty ? 
Mind, heart, conscience, all are suited by this teach- 
ing. If it is true, it is certainly most gloriously 
true, and all men should accept gladly the religion 
which vouches it. Theoretically, at least, it is ex- 
actly adapted to the needs of humanity, to human 
nature everywhere. 

What proof of its truthfulness? What practical 
evidence ? 

Jesus himself was the great proof of its truthful- 
ness, and to those who believe in him he is still the 
supreme evidence. His sinless life ; his wondrous 
wisdom, unaccountable by any theory of merely 
natural acquirements ; his moral grandeur ; his self- 
sacrificing spirit, surpassing all else that the world 
ever saw ; his voluntary martyrdom ; and his fulfil- 
ment of the promise which he made to his disciples, 
that, having laid down his life, he would take it 
again — all go to show that he was what he said he 
was, the divine Son of God, and that his teachings 
were true. " Jesus and the resurrection " was the 
proof of Christianity which the apostles put forward. 
They held him up as a practical evidence of the im- 
possibility that the doctrines which he had taught 
could be other than true. And so he is still held up 
by history. The risen Christ is a proof to all ages 
that Christianity is true. 



CHRISTIANITY A UNIVERSAL RELIGION 181 

But that is not all. There are other proofs, other 
"signs," that Jesus was the true Messiah, and that 
Christianity is destined to become universal. 

When the messengers of the Baptist asked Jesus 
the question with which John had commissioned 
them, "In that same hour," we are told, u he cured 
many of their infirmities and plagues and evil 
spirits, and to many that were blind he gave sight." 
Then said he to the messengers, " Go your way and 
tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how 
that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are 
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the 
poor the- gospel is preached ; and blessed is he who 
soever shall not be offended in me." The proof of 
his Messiahship which Jesus presented on that nota- 
ble occasion was the practical proof of his beneficent 
works. On other occasions also he used the same ar- 
gument. When certain of his enemies said to him, 
"How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be 
the Christ, tell us plainly," he answered them, "I 
told you, and ye believe not : the works that I do in 
my Father's name, they bear witness of me ; " and 
again, "If I do not the works of my Father, believe 
me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, be- 
lieve the works." His miraculous works, being 
works of love, bore irrefutable testimony to the truth 
of his words; for, as Nicodemus confessed, he could 
not possibly have done such works unless God had 
been with him. 

It was owing not merely to the sublimity of his 
teachings, nor to the nobility of his character, but 



182 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

largely to the support which his teachings received 
from his miracles, that his disciples believed on him. 
Even Ren an frankly admits that Christianity could 
have made no headway in the first century of the 
Christian era — which is equivalent to saying that it 
could have made no headway at all — had it not been 
for the popular belief in its miracles. That the be- 
lief was well founded is as certain as anything 
recorded by history. 

What the miracles of Jesus were to his own gener- 
ation, the practical effects of the Christian religion 
have been to all succeeding ones — proofs of its divine 
origin and incomparable excellence. Indeed, his own 
miracles were typical and prophetical of what he called 
the " greater works " which have been done by Chris- 
tianity in every following century. 

At the beginning of the Christian era, the condition 
of the Gentile world was like that of a dark and stag- 
nant pool, so thick with distrust and superstition, 
and so foul with every kind of sin, that it seemed as 
if no virtue could survive in the midst of it, nor any 
hope for the future be strong enough to resist its dis- 
mal influences, and pass safely through its noisome 
air. A full description of the moral condition of the 
most civilized nations which then dwelt upon earth 
would be too shocking for these pages. In the first 
chapter of his epistle to the Romans the apostle Paul 
makes mention of it; and what he says of it is cor- 
roborated to the fullest extent by the testimony of 
pagan writers. 

But into that dark and filthy state of society the 



CHRISTIANITY A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 183 

disciples of Jesus boldly went, and, by preaching the 
doctrines which he had declared to them, and mani- 
festing the spirit with which he had inspired them, 
they brought about such a change as astonished the 
nations, creating a moral revolution, and redeeming 
the world from the state of corruption in which its 
multitudes lay dying. Like a stream of clear water 
from some mountain-fed spring, they poured them- 
selves and their religion into the slough of heathen- 
ism, and, strange though it seem and contrary to the 
laws of nature, instead of being contaminated, they 
purified the manners of the society which surrounded 
them. Throughout the whole extent of the Roman 
Empire, not only among the people of one nationality, 
but of all the diverse nationalities which were domi- 
nated by Caesar, they carried the religion of the cru- 
cified one ; and by making converts thereto among all 
of those nations, without any distinction, they brought 
about a stronger union than Rome with all its armies 
had been able to compass. They broke down the 
partition walls between different races, and gathered 
into one spiritual organization, dominated by Jesus, 
men of every tongue, and tribe, and nation, from the 
Danube to the Nile, and from beyond the Euphrates 
to the pillars of Hercules. Everywhere they elevated 
the standard of righteousness. Everywhere they made 
men better. Everywhere they proved themselves 
the salt of the earth, demonstrating that Christianity 
was not for one nation only, but for human nature 
wherever found, without regard to environments. 
That was a long time ago; and never since then 



184 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

has Christianity failed to give proof of its truthful- 
ness, and of its fitness for different nations of men. 
Even during the Middle Ages, notwithstanding the 
corruptions to which it was subjected, it was the one 
saving element which interpenetrated the politics and 
the social manners and customs of the different na- 
tions of Europe, holding tyranny in check, protecting 
the rights of the weak and the poor, administering 
countless charities, and preparing the way for the 
better things of to-day. Underneath all the evils of 
an ecclesiastical nature which necessitated the Ref- 
ormation, Christianity still survived and was the 
mightiest power for good in the world. It brought 
about the Reformation, and again proved its divine 
origin as in the days of its infancy. 

And now what do we see? Is Christianity effete? 
Has it ceased to give practical proof of its truthful- 
ness, and of its fitness to be the religion of all men? 
Never before was it giving so much as to-day. Never 
before was it doing so much charitable work, so 
much reformatory work, or so much missionary work. 
Never before did it manifest to so great an extent its 
divine power to enlighten and to bless human kind. 
In Christian lands it is steadily and increasingly pro- 
motive of everything that is beneficial to society. Its 
churches, its schools, its hospitals, its reformatories, 
are multiplying year by year, and under its influ- 
ence Christian nations are more and more leading 
the world. In heathen lands it is extending its 
blessed ministry with unprecedented rapidity, carry- 
ing with it such material and spiritual advantages, 



CHBISTIANITT A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 185 

and effecting such pronounced improvements in the 
lives of the many thousands who have lately accepted 
it, that no one can deny, with reason, that the power 
of God is directly involved in it. 

One hundred years ago there were probably not 
one hundred Christians of native birth in all coun- 
tries outside of America and Europe. To-day there 
are about three millions, distributed among nearly 
all of the nations, each of whom can truly say, 
" Whereas I was blind, now I see." Seventy-five 
years ago the Sandwich Islands were inhabited by 
a race of nearly naked barbarians, who practised 
polygamy and the grossest kind of idolatry, offering 
human sacrifices to their hideous images. To-day, 
thanks to Christianity, the inhabitants of those 
islands are a civilized people. Fifty years ago the 
population of the Fiji Islands, numbering about 
two hundred thousand, were savages and cannibals. 
To-day, as a result of the introduction of Christian- 
ity among them, they are a peaceable, industrious, 
fairly educated people, observing the proprieties of 
civilized life ; with chapels numbering more than 
twelve hundred, church members more than twenty- 
six thousand, and Sunday-school scholars more than 
forty-two thousand. 

Fifteen years ago the Modoc Indians were the 
terror of our northwestern border, addicted to sav- 
agery of the most brutal description. To-day they 
are a community of industrious farmers, half of 
whom are professing Christians. For seven years 
before they were Christianized, it cost the United 



186 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

States government nearly two million of dollars to 
care for the Dakota Indians. After they were Chris- 
tianized it cost, for the same term of years, only one 
hundred and twenty thousand dollars. What the 
armed force of a nation was not able to do, the Chris- 
tian religion very quickly accomplished. 

And so the story might be extended, the story of 
the miracles which Christianity is accomplishing in 
the latter part of the nineteenth century. Wherever 
it goes, it carries proof of its truthfulness in its won- 
derful deeds. In Madagascar, Samoa, Sierre Leone, 
it shows the same power as in the places just men- 
tioned. In China, Japan, India, Egypt, and the very 
heart of what till lately has been " The Dark Conti- 
nent," it is making its way with irresistible persua- 
sion ; and among the people of every country where 
its missions are founded, it exhibits the same grasp, 
the same exact adaptation to the innate needs of hu- 
man nature. African, Mongolian, Australian, Cau- 
casian, all are human ; and to their common humanity 
Christianity addresses its message successfully. It 
gives power to become the sons of God to men of 
the most widely distinct nationalities, introducing 
them all alike into the blessings of a kingdom which 
is not of this world, and making them to be no more 
strangers and foreigners to one another, but fellow- 
citizens and members of the household of God. 

Already, in almost every nation on the face of the 
earth, there are living witnesses to the fact that 
Christianity is adapted to the human race as a whole. 
Already it has exhibited a capability of extension 



CHRISTIANITY A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 187 

which makes no account of geographical boundaries, 
and a spirit of inclusiveness which transcends all dis- 
tinctions of a racial character. Like the fabled tent 
of Persian story, — which was originally enfolded in 
a nutshell, but which, when opened in the royal 
nursery, became so large that all the children of the 
palace could play in it; and when opened in the 
courtyard, became large enough to provide the whole 
household with shelter ; and when pitched upon the 
open plain, became sufficiently capacious to cover 
an army, — the Christian religion shows unlimitable 
adaptability and expansiveness. Wrapped up in the 
New Testament, it can be opened indefinitely, and 
will accommodate as few or as many as may be. It 
belongs to the Lord of hosts and the Father of all 
men. Families, communities, nations may rest in it. 
The whole world may be enfolded by it, and the indi- 
cations are that it certainly will be. 

This cannot be said of any other religion. No 
other of the numerous faiths which obtain among 
men can compare with Christianity in ability to 
meet the needs of the whole human family. Other 
religions have good in them. There is a measure of 
truth in them. But it is truth mixed with error, 
ofttimes with gross error. At best it is imperfect 
truth, insufficient for men's needs, and very largely 
unverified by those who adhere to it. Its teachers 
have been able to furnish no proof of it, or of any- 
thing more than a very small part of it. They have 
given their guesses, their wishes, their inferences, 
their philosophies; but, with the exception of the 



188 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

prophets of the religion of Israel* none of them have 
been able to speak with authority, or to substantiate 
their statements with such facts as were needed. As 
far as it goes, the religion of Israel is shown to be 
true, not only by its lofty reasonableness, but by 
historical events of a most remarkable character, 
unparalleled elsewhere outside of Christianity. But 
Judaism falls very far short of Christianity. It stops 
just at the point where it ought to go on, and con- 
demns itself to be the religion of the Jewish race 
only; while of the other religions, aside from Chris- 
tianity, there is none which is not manifestly void of 
authority, erroneous in many matters, and unable to 
prove itself, or to extend itself beyond certain national 
lines. 

Christianity includes all the truth of the other 
religions, excludes all their errors, supplements their 
partial truth with the further truth which human 
nature stands in need of, furnishes practical evidence 
of it, and sends it forth, conquering and to conquer, 
on its mission of salvation among all races of men. 

And this' power is given to it, not merely by the 
superiority of the doctrines which it teaches, and by 
the practical proof which it gives of their truthful- 
ness ; but by the personal influence of Jesus himself, 
who, although he departed from this world more than 
eighteen centuries ago, has never ceased to exert that 
magnetism over individual souls which so signally 
distinguished him when he was here upon earth, 
and to which he referred in triumphant tones when, 
shortly before his crucifixion, he said, "And I, if I 



CHRISTIANITY A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 189 

be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto 
me." Never was there another such wonderful per- 
son — never another with such power to make peo- 
ple love him, not only during the time of his own 
generation, but during all succeeding ages, with an 
affection so strong as to lift them out of themselves, 
counteract their temptations, and made them willing, 
if need be, to die for his name. In that respect, 
among all of the religious teachers and leaders of 
men, Jesus of Nazareth stands supreme and alone. 
His personal influence is unique in the world's his- 
tory; and it is that, quite as much as the truth of 
his words, or the miracles which he wrought, or the 
civilization which follows belief in him, that makes 
Christianity a religion for all men, and assures its 
universal prevalence. 

For mankind stand in need of a personal Saviour. 
They need not merely abstract truth and sufficient 
evidence of it, but the saving influence of one who 
personifies and illumines it, and who can inspire 
them with such love and aspiration and courage as 
to enable them to live in accordance therewith. 

No other religion affords such a Saviour. All 
others, with more or less clearness, betoken the need 
of one; but none of them can point men to him. 
" We cannot," said Seneca, "be saved by ourselves ; 
some one must lend a hand, some one educate ; " but 
he could advise nothing better than to choose some 
good man, and to take him as a model. Even Soc- 
rates, wisest of all pagan teachers, was obliged to 
confess his ignorance in regard to matters which 



190 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

chiefly concern man's salvation, and could only say 
to his disciples, when he was about to depart from 
them, " Go search Greece for a charmer ; it is a wide 
world ; and perhaps somewhere you will find some 
one who will give you comfort and consolation." 
The Hebrew prophets searched diligently to discover 
what was signified by the premonitions which they 
possessed of the coming of a perfect Saviour, but 
their eyes never saw him, and they died without 
knowing him. Only in Christianity and in the per- 
son of Jesus does this need of humanity find satis- 
faction. There, and there only, can mankind find a 
Saviour. So that, even were it true that the abstract 
truths of Christianity could be found in scattered 
form among the other religions, Christianity would 
still be unique and supreme, the only religion which 
can meet the world's need. 

Before it all others must pass away. They must 
decrease, because it must increase. Rapidly the 
process is now going on. To hasten that process to 
its glorious completion, to extend Christ's dominion, 
to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth that all 
men may be blessed by it, is the duty and the privi- 
lege of all Christian believers. Blessed are they 
whose eyes have seen, and whose ears have heard, 
the things which the Christian religion discloses. 
Blessed are they who believe in it. And twice 
blessed are they who, having been themselves en- 
lightened, engage in the work of Christian missions. 
God speed its advancement ; and may each of us do 
something to hasten the day when all people who 



CHRISTIANITY A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 191 

have not yet learned of Jesus can say, like those 
Samaritans who had been told about him by the 
woman who met him at Jacob's well, "Now we 
believe, not because of thy saying: for we have 
heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed 
<he Christ, the Saviour of the world." 



192 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 



XII 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS. 



BY REV. F. W. HAMILTON. 



The establishment and successful operation of for- 
eign missions under distinctly Universalist auspices 
marks an important epoch in the development of 
religious thought. It is of vast importance to the 
Universalist denomination directly. It is of vastly 
greater importance to the Christian world at large. 
It is one of those facts which controvert long accepted 
theory, and by controverting destroy it. The gener- 
ally accepted philosophy of missions has been a very 
simple one. The Christian Church has looked upon 
the world, and especially the non-christian world, as 
being utterly lost, doomed, and hopeless. It has con- 
sidered the pains of an eternal hell of fiery torment 
as being the inevitable portion of every soul of man 
not reached in this life by the saving message of the 
gospel, and not accepting the atonement that has been 
made by Christ as its own. So thinking, earnest and 
pitying souls have felt that they could not be at ease 
while their fellow-men were resting under the shadow 
of a doom so awful, unless they made some effort to 
warn and help them. The earnest ones strove to 




REV. FREDERICK W. HAMILTON. 



194 OUR WORD AND WORK. FOR MISSIONS. 

Noyes, a modified partialism ; we have liberal mis- 
sions teaching an implied Universalism ; and we have 
a successful mission which is Christian from centre 
to circumference and which places the gospel of the 
endless and limitless love of the Father in the fore- 
front of its message. The time has come for a re- 
statement of the philosophy of missions. Effort is 
always helped by clear thought. The old philosophy 
of missions must soon fall to pieces. Unless the 
Christian world can first be familiarized with a new 
and better one the period of transition will be one of 
great uncertainty, of paralysis of effort, and of loss 
of ground. While the workers are groping in the 
darkness caused by the failure of the trusted light 
the work will cease. Let the new lights be lighted 
in good time. As the Universalis t Church has led in 
the establishment of the conditions which are destroy- 
ing the old philosophy of missions, so it should also 
lead in the teaching of the new philosophy. Having 
made clear to its own mind certain fundamental prin- 
ciples, it should labor to spread them as widely and 
to teach them as effectively as the means at its com- 
mand will allow. 

No discussion of the philosophy of missions is worth 
anything unless it begins with recognition of the fact 
that our Lord expressly commanded his followers to 
go forth and disciple the nations, to preach his word 
in all regions far and near, to proclaim the gospel to 
all the peoples of the earth. If there is anything 
clear in the New Testament record, it is that Christ 
intended his Church to be a missionary Church, and 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS. 195 

a foreign missionary Church at that. The long and 
careful training of the twelve, the sending of the dis- 
ciples on missionary journeys, the constant reference 
to the ultimate wider range of Christian effort, the 
explicit commands laid so solemnly on the apostles — 
all have this end in view. They w ere expressly com- 
manded not to await the complete evangelization of 
Jerusalem and its environs, But to tarry there only 
till the Holy Spirit should come upon them, and then 
go out to 0;ther fields of labor. No doubt the twelve 
could have found enough to do at Jerusalem, and 
Paul might have spent a life of labor in Damascus ; 
but that was neither God's plan nor Christ's inten- 
tion. They became missionaries, and to their mis- 
sionary labors the world owes what of Christianity it 
has to-day. Indeed, this direct command of our Lord 
ought to be in itself a sufficient philosophy of mis- 
sions. The disciple is not greater than his master, 
nor the servant than his lord. The Christian Church 
can have no other mission on earth than the carrying 
forward of the work its founder began along the lines 
he laid down. He is our master and our leader. Our 
work is vital only as it is his work, and wise only as 
it follows his designs. It seems strange that men 
professing the Christian religion should question the 
wisdom of missions, whether domestic or foreign does 
not matter, should doubt the polic}^ of undertaking 
them, or should cast about for some philosophical 
ground for engaging in them, in the face of this 
direct command of Christ himself. The Universalist 
Church, whatever else it may or may not be, is a 



196 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

Christian church. Whether it be wise or unwise in 
its interpretation of Christ's message, it means to take 
him for its leader and instructor, and his message for 
its message. Whether it sees clearly the worldly wis- 
dom of his command or not, it has, or should have, 
sufficient faith in him and sufficient loyalty to him to 
make that command the supreme law of its conduct. 
The general cannot allow the obeying of his orders to 
wait upon their comprehension by eveiy private and 
camp-follower. The leader of men has a right to 
demand that his followers obey before they under- 
stand. The Christ said many things to his disciples 
that they were unable to understand, asking only that 
they obey and await with patience the time when 
their minds should be open to fuller understanding 
of the things they had heard and seen and done. 
The command of Christ that his followers go forth 
and disciple all the nations has never yet been re- 
voked. It is as binding on every branch of the 
Church universal to-day as it was on every one of the 
apostolic band nineteen centuries ago. That com- 
mand is in itself a sufficient philosophy of missions. 

However conclusive we may regard the command 
of Christ, it is proper and wise to consider it some- 
what in the light of the larger vision that time and 
study have given us of the purposes of Christian 
effort, and the fuller knowledge that experience has 
brought us of the laws of the Church's life. A wider 
vision of the purpose of the Christian Church gives 
us at once some view of a wider and deeper philoso- 
phy of missions than has, of late at least, been com- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS. 197 

mon. We are beginning to understand something of 
the meaning of the command to disciple the nations. 
We are beginning to see that the business of the 
Church is not merely with the individual, with hu- 
manity in the concrete, but with the nations, with 
humanity in the mass. The ends sought are first the 
righteousness of the individual, the bringing in of 
the kingdom of God in the minds and hearts of his 
children; and then, rooted in that individual right- 
eousness, and growing naturally and legitimately out 
of it, the Christianizing of all human relations, 
whether personal or social, political or religious ; that 
conversion of the kingdoms of this world into the 
kingdoms of God and his Christ which was the as- 
piration of the lawgiver, the ever-present hope of 
the prophet, and the glorious vision of the Christ. 
Whether we are dealing with the individual or the 
community at large, the end we aim at is the same. 
The aim of Christianity is to save individuals, com- 
munities, races, from present evil and imperfect con- 
ditions. That the New Testament is full of the 
promise of a blessed and glorious immortality for 
the children of God is true. That it declares un- 
shrinkingly the evil consequences that wait upon 
iniquity, both here and hereafter, is also true. But 
the stress of urgency is always laid on the demands 
of existing conditions. The gospel is for present 
salvation from present sin. Men are to be delivered 
from their sins, from this present evil world, from 
the actual and oppressive domination of the evil in- 
fluences that cluster around their lives. Men need 



198 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

Christ, and the nations need Christianity, not because 
of what may befall them by and by, but because of 
what has befallen them already. Men are blind and 
weak and ignorant and imperfect. They have not 
yet grown to see rightly either their God, their duty, 
or themselves. Because of these imperfections of 
condition their lives are unsatisfactory and imperfect. 
Their highest and best selves have not been stirred 
to life. They are dead, or, at best, only half alive. 
The Christ has come that they might have life here 
and now, and that they might have it more abun- 
dantly. The justification for the most intense effort 
and the most unsparing sacrifice is to be found in 
this imperfection and unsatisfactoriness of present 
and actual conditions. 

Christ commanded his apostles to go forth and 
disciple the nations, not simply because the individ- 
ual souls that composed those nations were languish- 
ing in need of a saving message, certainly not because 
they were lying unconsciously under sentence of 
eternal damnation, but because the nations* them- 
selves, in their laws, customs, institutions, and lives, 
needed inspiration from his life and teaching. The 
Christian Church sends its missionaries to-day to the 
wilds of darkest Africa, the steaming jungles of India, 
and the lonely islands of the Pacific, not simply be- 
cause of the imminent danger in which it supposes 
the unfortunate souls there to be existing, but in 
order that the poor fellows, who are living there in 
the barbarism and ignorance of past ages, may have 
some share in the light and life and progress of this 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS. 199 

glorious time. If the Church had nothing whatever 
to do save to minister to the spiritual needs of indi- 
vidual souls, we who believe that all souls are God's 
might safely leave them in his hands, could we force 
ourselves to ignore the plain command of Christ. 
But no man can read the Bible intelligently without 
seeing that a very important part of God's plan is 
the elevation and purification of humanity so that the 
life of earth shall share the splendid qualities of 
the life with God in heaven. God means that hu- 
manity shall be perfected for the here, as well as 
saved for the hereafter. The Bible is the record of 
God's continuous dealings with his children since 
humanity began in the development and realization 
of that plan. From the Deluge to the revelation at 
Sinai, from the Babylonian captivity to the tragedy 
of Calvary, through all the mazes of human history 
and all the vicissitudes of the human race, God has 
been steadily working out that plan ; and every king 
and priest and prophet, every war and every revolu- 
tion, every discovery and every invention that the 
world has ever seen, has made its contribution toward 
the one far-off, divine event. No civilization can be 
complete or permanent that has not a vital and pure 
religion at the heart of it. The fall of empires has 
always been preceded by the decay of their religion. 
The nations that have led the van of the world's 
progress have been, and are, the nations that have had 
the best and purest religion at the heart of their civ- 
ilization. That the backward nations of the earth 
may share the progress of their more favored sisters 



200 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

they need that these should give them their art and 
science, their inventions and their commerce, their 
literature and their wealth, and, more than any and 
all of these, their religion. No man who has felt his 
heart warmed by the fires of Christian love can see 
the abject and degraded condition of the heathen 
nations, the hopeless fatalism and blank pessimism 
of the East, the moral shortcomings and the unsatis- 
fied spiritual yearnings of even so splendid a people 
as the Japanese, without feeling that there is that in 
present conditions, in the national life as it exists 
now, that warrants all he can possibly do to give 
these people better living and higher thinking. It 
is not that these people are lying under the curse of 
an inherited doom, nor that they have failed to live 
measurably up to their accepted lights, nor that they 
deserve damnation because of their actual immorality, 
that is the really important element in the problem. 
It is that these nations are not only imperfect, as we 
all are, but are lagging behind the rest, while the 
divine plan embraces all humanity in its sweep, and 
has decreed that it shall all be made perfect. The 
command to disciple all nations rests on the need of 
the nations, the need for the present betterment of 
life and all its conditions, and upon the obligation 
upon humanity to let the hands of men work out the 
will of God, far more than it does upon the future 
danger of souls which are never beyond the love and 
sight and reach of the God who marks the fall of the 
sparrow. 

The uses of an object, or the purposes of an institu- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS. 201 

tion, are often shown most clearly by an examination 
of its structure and evident adaptations. The theory 
that Christianity is intended for a missionary religion 
finds most ample corroboration when tried by this 
test. The more accurate one's knowledge of Chris- 
tianity, the deeper his insight into its principles and 
its nature, the more profound his conviction of its 
wonderful adaptability to be the religion of the 
world, the satisfaction of the spiritual wants of all 
men everywhere, without the slightest regard to the 
varying conditions of time or place. It is neither 
wise nor just nor Christian to deny the helpfulness 
of the non-Christian religions. Every one of them 
has been an effort to find God, and every one of 
them has made its contribution, however imperfect, 
to the approach of humanity to its divine stature. 
Every one of them has left men better than it found 
them, made them better than they would have be- 
come without it. But every one of them has carried 
within itself the limitations upon its own usefulness. 
It has been the result of geographical or climatic 
conditions, or it has grown out of the history and con- 
ditions of a people, or it has developed marked and 
important characteristics that depend for their value 
on the presence of some racial trait or quality. In 
the determination of their form, and in the develop- 
ment of their distinct individualities, all these reli- 
gions have struck their roots merely into the surface 
soil of condition or of environment; or in so far as 
they have grown out of humanity itself at all, they 
have grown out only of that which was incidental 



202 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

and temporary. They are nourished, it is true, by 
the longing of the soul for God, but in other respects 
they are not closely identified with the essential, the 
permanent, and the universal in humanity. It needs 
but a thought to reveal the incongruity of consid- 
ering any of the non-Christian systems as a world- 
religion. The beautiful and sensuous mythology of 
Greece would be absurd in Scandinavia, and the 
Norse mythology is inconceivable under Hellenic 
skies. Who can imagine the development of the 
social ethics of Confucius, or the contemplative ab- 
stractions of Buddhism under the conditions of life 
that prevailed in the old Teutonic forests? The 
religion of Mahomet has perhaps been more a mis- 
sionary religion in its character than any other save 
Christianity ; but even that so reflects the life and 
thought of the Arab and the Turk, that it would 
have to be modified almost out of all semblance of 
itself before it would suit the needs and uses of the 
Kelt or the Anglo-Saxon. Not so Christianity. Just 
as we are told that the natives of every country rep- 
resented in the great crowd that had come up to 
Jerusalem to keep the Passover understood, each in 
his own language, the speech of the apostles on the 
day of Pentecost, so the Christian religion has always 
spoken the heart-language of all humanity. Where- 
ever it has gone — among the speculative Greeks or 
the practical Romans, among the contemplative Ori- 
entals or the active men of the West, among polar 
snows or tropical jungles, among civilized men or sav- 
ages, high or low, rich or poor, wise or foolish — it 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS. 203 

has reached and touched and vitalized the hearts of 
men. They have found it level to their understand- 
ings. It has fitted the conditions of their lives and 
has transcended all differences in situation or sur- 
roundings. It does this because it strikes its roots 
into those things which are not liable to change or 
to decay. The great needs and great capacities of 
humanity are always the same. The laws of life and 
thought are always the same. The eternal verities 
are not liable to mutation. It is with these things, 
these things that underlie and control the life of 
humanity everywhere and always, that Christianity 
deals. It bears in its very structure and in the laws 
of its organized life its divine commission to disciple 
and to save the world. 

Not only is the Christian Church commanded to 
be a missionary church, and especially endowed with 
the qualifications which fit it to be such a church, 
but the long experience of the past has shown that 
it must be such on pain of stagnation, decay, and 
perhaps death. The Church has never succeeded in 
simply holding its own. It has been either positive, 
aggressive, and increasing, or it has been defensive, 
sluggish, and decaying. No matter how poor and 
weak the Church has been, or how apparently unfa- 
vorable the conditions surrounding it, it has met suc- 
cess whenever it has taken the field as a missionary 
church, and striven to impart its own life to those 
who needed it. No matter how rich and prosperous 
it has been, it has smothered under the burden of its 
own prosperity, unless that prosperity has found 



204 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

active exercise in the effort to serve others. The 
same rule applies here that applies to the physical 
and mental constitution of the individual. Cease to 
use a muscle, and you lose the power to use it. 
Leave the mind unoccupied and it becomes a blank. 
The man who uses his physical powers constantly 
and wisely lives to a sound and healthy old age. 
The man who spares all effort, and seeks a life of in- 
dolence, lives an invalid and dies broken before his 
time. The men of enormous and constant mental 
activity, the Gladstones and Von Rankes, preserve 
their intellectual vigor unimpaired to the last limit 
of extreme old age ; but the men who were immured 
in the dungeons of the older time without occupa- 
tion for their intellects, soon sank into hopeless im- 
becility. The sole condition of vigorous life is the 
normal and uninterrupted performance of the proper 
functions of that life, and that rule applies to organi- 
zations as well as to individuals. Not only have the 
periods of the Church's greatest home success been 
the periods of its greatest outside activity, but the 
prosperity of individual parishes may be very safely 
gauged by the vigor of their activity in outside work. 
It is reported that Beecher used to say that he did 
not greatty care whether or not a cent of the money 
contributed by Plymouth Church to the American 
Board ever got to the heathen, but he wanted the 
contributions made because of their incalculable value 
to Plymouth Church itself. The thought was sound. 
The church that has the thought of other's needs 
nearest its heart, the church that is most solicitous to 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS. 205 

be faithful in its obedience to its Founder's com- 
mands, is the one that is nearest to that Founder, and 
has the most of his spirit in its heart and the most 
of his power in its hands. The church that lives 
only for itself, cares only for the payment of its own 
bills, the filling of its own pulpit and pews, and the 
salvation of its own members, is living at a poor, 
dying rate, and generally finds itself outstripped, 
even in these particulars, by those who seek first the 
larger and higher things their mission contemplates. 

Our discussion cannot properly be closed without 
raising the question as to the basis on which a Uni- 
versalistic conception and interpretation of Chris- 
tianity is to make its appeal to the world. If the 
motive of fear is to be removed, and we are no longer 
to appeal to the pity and the terror of humanity, 
what appeal can we make that will be potent enough 
to move, help, and save them ? For reply it is to be 
said that Universalist Christianity can make precisely 
the same appeal to the world that was made by the 
apostolic Church, and may expect, measurably at 
least, the same response. It is probable that the 
changes of two thousand years have hardened hu- 
manity somewhat, and that the existing conditions, 
both within and without the Church, are hardly such 
as to give warrant for expectation that Christian 
preaching can now have the enormous immediate 
effect that it had in the days of the apostles ; but the 
same old appeal may be made and in the same old 
way; and if made prayerfully and earnestly, faith- 
fully, persistently, and enthusiastically, there can be 



206 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

» 

no doubt of great results, greater, perhaps, than most 
of us dare hope for. Without confidence in ourselves 
and in our message we shall accomplish nothing. 
Universalism is sometimes regarded, and, it is to be 
feared, sometimes even held and defended, as if it 
were a modern philosophy read into the words of 
Jesus ; or, at most, a religio-philosophical system de- 
veloped by modern thought, and capable of being 
shown to be not inconsistent with his teachings. 
We Universalis ts believe that Universalism is a great 
deal more than that. We believe it to be the very 
thought and teaching of Christ himself, and of Paul 
and Peter, James and John. If we did not believe 
it to be their teaching we would never consent to 
have it foisted on Christianity any more than we 
consent to other accretions of more or less erroneous 
speculation. Other interpretations of Christianity 
have helped men because they have had something 
of Christ in them in spite of all their errors, and 
there is enough of saving power in even a very little 
of him and of his gospel to neutralize largely a very 
considerable admixture of error. Our vision of the 
uplifted Christ may be dimmed by the clouds of error 
that rise around us, may be distorted by the preju- 
dices of men, or pitifully dwarfed by the smallness of 
their eyes and of their souls, but it yet has the power 
to draw men unto itself. What may we not expect 
when those clouds have drifted away, those preju- 
dices sunk into oblivion, and those eyes and souls 
been enlarged and strengthened into capacity to 
behold the full glory of that upon which they gaze ? 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS. 207 

We may expect splendid results from the appeal 
of a Universalist Christianity because, like the preach- 
ing of Christ and the apostles, it makes appeal to 
the best that is in man. We get the best out of men 
by appealing to the best that is in men. Humilia- 
tion, sense of absolute worthlessness, terror and de- 
spair, — these are not the soil out of which can grow- 
strong effort and noble manhood. Love, hope, con- 
sciousness of capacity, aspiration after better and 
more fitting things, — these are chords of the human 
soul that yield the grandest and sweetest harmonies 
to the touch of the divine hand. The Psalmist said 
that the fear of the Lord was the beginning of wis- 
dom. He was right. The apostle said that perfect 
love casteth out fear, and that he that feareth is not 
made perfect in love. He, too, was right. The two 
statements together span the whole development of 
the religious life in humanity. First, that wholesome 
fear of outraged righteousness which brings men to 
their knees before God; and last, that perfect trust in 
the Father's love that lays them trustingly in his 
encircling arms. Man's life is sure to correspond 
largely to his conception of himself. It is a very for- 
tunate thing for humanity that its religious teachers 
never quite persuaded it that men were worms of the 
dust, or brought it really to believe that it had fallen 
into utter iniquity, or under deserved damnation, be- 
cause of the sin of its federal head. If such teach- 
ing had been really and universally accepted, it would 
not have been necessary to look beyond the limits of 
this life to find a hell that would have put into pale 



208 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

obscurity the most vivid and fantastic imaginations 
of a Milton, a Dante, or an Edwards. But let us 
once get a man thoroughly convinced that he is a 
child of the most high God, the possessor of an im- 
mortal soul made in the divine image, and the heir 
of all the splendid possibilities of that divine son- 
ship, and the whole soul will be stirred and stimu- 
lated to seek to rise to the level of those possibilities, 
and to fit itself for its place and mission. What said 
the best loved apostle ? " Beloved, now are we the 
sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be : but we know that, when he shall appear, we 
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And 
every man that hath this hope in him purifieth him- 
self, even as he is pure." John knew the mind of 
man as well as he knew the heart of Christ when he 
penned those words. Hope is the great incentive to 
action. Give a man hope, no matter how small, and 
he will struggle to the last extremity. Enlarge that 
hope to a fair probability, and he will make it a 
reality. Extinguish it, and he will lie down and die. 
The gospel of Christ makes its appeal to the best 
and highest in human nature. It shows man that 
God is not simply King and Judge, but Father, and 
so makes appeal to the deepest and tenderest emo- 
tions of which the heart is capable, and arouses the 
liveliest sentiments of gratitude, trust, and affection. 
It shows man that he is himself the child of God, and 
so interprets his nature to him in the light of its 
divine character and splendid possibilities. It opens 
before his aspiring gaze endless vistas of possible 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS. 209 

progress and attainment, gives him pledge that there 
is no aspiration of his heart, no matter how far-reach- 
ing, no vision of his sonl, no matter how splendid its 
imaginative coloring, that may not be far exceeded by 
his possible accomplishment. Contrasting the imper- 
fections of his past and present with the perfect com- 
pleteness of the divine intent, it lays its loving hand 
upon him and says, " Thou canst be all of this ; rise 
and go forward ! " Holding before his eyes the glories 
of his destiny as embraced in the plan of his divine 
Father, it shows him how trouble and sorrow and 
delay wait upon his sin and folly, how the stubborn- 
ness of his heart builds walls across his path, how his 
own perverseness turns its back on God, and how a 
long-suffering and patient Father leaves the deter- 
mination of such conditions largely in his own hands, 
yet not so as to permit his weak and foolish blunder- 
ing to make final shipwreck of his best self. It shows 
him, too, how he may help others to attain the fulness 
of their manhood, and substitutes for the ignoble de- 
sire for a selfish salvation the lofty purpose to please 
a loving God and help a suffering humanity. Such 
is the teaching of the gospel of Christ. Such is the 
message to humanity of Universalist Christianity. It 
is a glorious message. It is the very gospel, the 
" good news," that the world in its darkness and in 
its despair has been yearning to hear. It is a message 
that puts to utter shame the folly that prates about 
the nerve of missions being cut by the conviction of 
the boundless love of God. 

Pawtucket, R.I.; January, 1894. 



210 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 



XIII 

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE AND ITS REFLEX 

INFLUENCE. 



BY JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS, D.D. 



It hardly needs to be argued that missionary enter- 
prise is like enterprise in other fields, — in business, 
in politics, in war, — the exercise of energy, courage, 
boldness, in the prosecution of a given undertaking. 
It is the disposition to attempt what is difficult, to 
venture something in order to have something, to 
make liberal outlays of capital, labor, thought, or 
effort, for the sake of liberal returns. It is what we 
call "push," pluck, spirit, persistence in a project. 
The field in which the disposition finds its exercise is 
not the same, to be sure. But the enterprise which 
is put into the work of spreading the truths and fruits 
of the gospel of Christ yields returns according to 
the same laws as hold in every other field. Its reflex 
influence is of the same character in a church which 
is endeavoring to establish a great truth, as in a cor- 
poration or an individual trying to market a commod- 
ity. In both cases the reaction of growth, increase of 
strength, power, effectiveness, and vitality, are equal 
to the action of sacrifice and toil bestowed. There is 




JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS. D.D. 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 211 

in every department of life and effort a distinct rela- 
tion between what is put into a given work and what 
is taken out of it. Nor can it fail to profit the loyal 
supporter of the church to think of the advantages 
which must accrue to that church itself from a hearty 
and enthusiastic missionary spirit. The aim of mis- 
sionary effort, it is well understood, is not primarily 
the advancement of the interests of those who con- 
duct and sustain the missions. It is not selfish. It 
is not in any sense egotistic ; seeks not the good of 
its own ; thinks not of reflex benefits. But out of 
this self-forgetfulness, this sinking of self, this in- 
difference to reacting good, there is sure to come a 
vast gain which the most careful prudence and calcu- 
lation could not secure. We have no business, in 
planning for missions, to think at all of their benefit 
to ourselves. But having organized our expeditions 
and embarked upon our voyages of succor, of enlight- 
enment, of spiritual benefaction, we have a right to 
see what new power, what new perceptions, what new 
resources, have accrued to us in the process of our 
work. The aim of missionary endeavor is not self- 
aggrandizement. But if, in the course of the work, 
strength, resources, or deeper life, become our por- 
tion, we have a right to enjoy and rejoice in them. 
So, while we expressly ought to understand that we 
are not in the missionary work for the sake of the 
returns it makes to our own church and its life, we 
are entitled to present to ourselves the invariable laws 
of the spiritual mechanics by which we are assured of 
certain enlargement and moral benefit. 



212 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

We may consider, then, how very much resemblance 
there is between the spirit in which a good business 
man takes up his projects for gain, and the spirit in 
which a good Christian takes up his Master's work; 
and how close an analogy there also is between the 
results of what each of them does, in their effects 
upon the doers. The same qualities which are the 
guaranty of success in a business enterprise, insure 
it in Christian work. The enterprising merchant 
knows when he sees an opportunity for a good invest- 
ment. When he sees it, he strains all his energies to 
raise the capital for investment. There is his chance. 
The more he puts into it, the more he will get back. 
And when he has made his capital as large as he can, 
he pushes out boldly with his business. He does not 
handle his chances as if he were afraid of them. That 
is not enterprise. He believes in his opportunity, 
and has no misgivings about results. And when the 
fruits begin to come in and are gathered in the shape 
of profits, he is not thinking altogether how he may 
put them by, or use them as a fund in his old age, — 
such men are not thinking much about getting old 
and going out of business, — but he is planning to lay 
out his earnings in a way to increase his trade, enlarge 
his field of operations, build up the business. He 
shows skill, too, and energy in his choice of means, 
especially in the people whom he selects for his work, 
and in the adaptation they show to their particular 
tasks. He puts the right man in the right place, and 
turns to the best account whatever talent he is able 
to bring to his work. 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 213 

The results of such a policy are always an abler 
and a more large-minded man of business. As the 
man builds up his business, his business upbuilds 
him. The mind which enlarges to great plans, is in 
turn enlarged by them. The merchant grows to the 
proportions of his business. And if we follow out 
the analog}^ we shall note several particulars in 
which the law holds in the field of the spirit. 

In the first place, mark the effect upon the church 
which enters boldly and largely upon the work of 
missions, of what answers to the instinct for invest- 
ment in business. An enterprising man is somehow 
always on the alert for new openings for his wares, 
new channels for his industries, new fields for his 
workmen. He has his eyes open for all the chances 
which offer of doing men's work and getting their 
patronage. We all know of such men. If there is a 
chance to make money in ways in which they are in- 
terested anywhere within the compass of the globe, 
they manage to know about it, and to use it if they 
can. There seems to be a sixth sense about them 
which detects a good opening for investment before 
any one else, and puts them on the ground with the 
materials of business long before their competitors 
have even heard that there was any chance at all. 

Now, that is the instinct which seems to exist in 
many good Christian minds in regard to the Master's 
work. There are just such enterprising workers in 
the Christian Church. They have an instinct for 
knowing just where there is need of good gospel 
work, and they are always interested in hunting up 



214 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

the places and getting somebody to work there. 
They have a restless spirit of vigilance which watches 
instant by instant for opportunities to do more work 
for the Church of Christ. They have as restless an 
impulse to use every chance they see — put a chapel 
wherever there are a few people struggling together 
in a settlement, send a missionary to a new commu- 
nity, or raise the funds to resuscitate an old one — as 
the merchant to open a new market, or the politician 
to make votes. They are brimming over with mis- 
sionary enterprise. They are alive with the true 
and holy zeal of aggression. 

That is a class of workers, and that is a kind of 
enterprise of which I think we should all be glad to 
see more in the Universalist Church. Machinery we 
have, and means we have, if only we had the courage 
and the ardor to use them. But we are not enter- 
prising enough. We are afraid of our chances. We 
are too timid to strike out. We are afraid to put 
ourselves forward. We do not dare to speak aloud 
for fear we shall be heard. We do not take what 
belongs to us, for fear somebody else might like it. 
The opportunity offered to our church is one of the 
most inviting and stimulating which ever opened be- 
fore a Christian people. And we are afraid to touch 
it, if, indeed, we realize what and how great it is. 
For if we were enterprising, if we trusted ourselves, 
we should organize ten new churches where we now 
organize one ; we should give tens of thousands of 
dollars where we now give hundreds. 

There can of course be but one result from such 



MlSSIOtfA ET ENTERPRISE. 215 

hesitancy and lack of confidence. It will beget self- 
distrust and weakness. It will shrivel our plans and 
shrink our courage. It will contract all the works 
of our hands to small and discreditable proportions. 
The reaction of timidity is insignificance. He who 
dares not be great, shall be smaller than he plans. 
The only policy which can make a noble success 
possible, is the method of high courage and large 
confidence. It is the method which marks out 
great work, and then steadily and bravely advances 
to accomplish it. 

When the battle of Gettysburg was impending there 
were two parties of men among the corps of com- 
manders. A part wanted to fall back and get into a 
snug, secure position, and wait for the enemy to come 
on and attack. Others believed in pushing forward 
and getting hold of the enemy wherever he might be 
found. The gallant Reynolds, who fell in the first 
of the struggle which he had precipitated, was to- 
tally opposed to anything like a defensive policy. 
" He," as his friend says, " was really eager to get at 
them." And it was in pursuance of that ardent pur- 
pose that he died while precipitating the decisive 
battle of thfe war. 

Now, it is high time that we forsook our timid, 
halting, conservative policies, which trifle with great 
opportunities, which hesitate to undertake large 
schemes, which look only to holding on to what we 
have, and dare not run the risk of a possible failure 
for the sake of almost certain success. We have 
passed through a term of years in which that has 



216 OUR WORD AND WORE FOR MISSIONS. 

been too often the characteristic of what we have 
done. Let us have no more of it. Let us have done 
falling back and fortifying, fighting on the defensive, 
and standing ready to run at any moment. Let us 
believe in ourselves and our opportunity, as heaven 
knows we have a right to. Let us go forward to 
meet our work and make it, even for ourselves. 
And let us be full of the restlessness which is only 
satisfied when it is busied about the Master's busi- 
ness. We shall not run any risks in so doing. Our 
only peril lies in acting forever on the defensive. 
We may be sure that if we are as eager to get at the 
enemy as that brave general, we can confidently 
count on as glorious results as fell to the gallant 
army at Gettysburg. 

But let us remind ourselves again, that the only 
way in which we shall arrive at this large success, is 
by a realization that we are here, not to build up our 
own church, but to build up mankind. We shall 
never get the true and valuable reaction from mis- 
sionary zeal and works if we use these simply as an 
indirect means of church advancement. We can 
never thrive if we merely strive to help the world for 
the sake of our church. Our success depends on an 
honest and unselfish effort to " do good and lend, 
hoping for nothing again." We are perfectly justified 
in looking for large returns for our work. But we 
must not forget what the real returns, the true profits 
of mission work, are. We must remember that we 
are not alone seeking the secular advancement of the 
Universalist Church. We are trying to save human 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 217 

souls. We are in this world not for our own sakes 
merely, but for the sake of those whom God has 
intended should be blessed through us. And the 
instinct for investment, with the missionary, is simply 
the impulse to plant and push the work wherever 
a human life can be helped by it. Whatever reacting 
influence comes to us, as the noble stimulus from our 
own exertions, — the quickened pulse of love, of 
hope, of devotion, — we are fairly entitled to. But 
it all must come as the result, not of self-seeking, but 
of self-sacrifice. 

We all are familiar with the way in which the 
cautious and conservative among us are accustomed 
to look at this matter. " We must be careful,' ' they 
say, "how we use the funds entrusted to us. We 
must not forget that we are trustees of moneys and 
resources which we must in some way invest so that 
we may have as much as possible to show for it." 
That is perfectly true, and there is no objection to be 
made to any caution which looks to a proper prudence 
and foresight. It is to be hoped that our church will 
never again be guilty of its follies in raising money 
without providing for expenses, in building " memo- 
rial funds " with a mortgage on them. But we ought 
to remember something else. We are the trustees of 
more than moneys. We are the trustees of a truth. 
We have received a faith from our fathers. And that 
we are bound to lavish on all the world. We are not 
true to the spirit of the men who lived and died for 
this faith and name if we fail to proclaim the truth 
far and wide. The souls of good men departed — the 



218 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

Ballous, the Smiths, the Williamsons of our church — 
will rise up and reproach us ; yea, will denounce our 
unfaithfulness, if we, with our comfortable incomes, 
our prosperous churches, our well-salaried pulpits, and 
wealthy pews, yet look out upon the needy world, 
starving for this gospel, and refuse to preach it unless 
we can see in our missionary work a good ecclesias- 
tical speculation ! 

And if we cannot possibly keep our thought off 
from the main chance, let us remember that the lar- 
gest, the most influential, the most prosperous churches 
in Christendom are those which have been most lavish 
in missionary sacrifices. They have not made these 
sacrifices in order to grow ; but because they made 
them unselfishly, they have grown. We shall not 
prosper by sending our missionaries to hew and build 
a way in the wilderness for our church to use as 
a private road to influence and power. But if we 
make in the desert a highway for God's truth, it 
shall prove a triumphal way to our own spiritual 
prosperity. 

Moreover, the Universalist Church, at this point in 
its career, needs emphatically the disposition to en- 
large its interests which characterizes all truly enter- 
prising bodies of men. I think it almost always marks 
men of enterprise that they are powerfully inclined 
to build up and enlarge their concerns. As long as 
the spirit of enterprise burns in a man's brain, it urges 
him to make fresh acquisitions to his field of opera- 
tions, larger means of meeting demand, larger de- 
mands to eat up his pupplies. The man of enterprise 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 219 

is like the farmer whom Emerson calls to our minds, 
who wanted all the land that joined his own. Bona- 
parte, trying to fence all Europe into the estates of 
France, was just such a man of enterprise. So was 
Alexander, when he cried for more worlds on which to 
feed his hunger for power. The religion of Jesus 
Christ is, and ever has been, marked by precisely this 
spirit of enterprise, which seeks all for its own. It is 
never satisfied with its conquests, and it never will 
be, as long as a single unconverted heart remains in 
this world. 

By virtue, then, of our membership in the Chris- 
tian Church, not less than through our obligations as 
custodians of the highest phase of Christian truth, 
this church of ours should manifest a more ambitious 
missionary spirit. It is time we were embarking in 
broader enterprises. Our own self-respect, our very 
desire to live and to thrive, call on us to expand our 
work. We have, it is true, a well-organized church, 
and the beginnings of very comfortable resources. 
We are very snugly fixed in circumstances which we 
can handle without much anxiety or effort. But that 
very snugness and content may kill us. It is a dan- 
gerous condition to get into. And it will forever 
restrict and cramp our life as a Christian church, if we 
do not shake off this timidity and indifference, and 
reach out for a larger life and work. Not long ago a 
New England manufacturer remarked to a friend : " I 
never allow our firm to figure on any contract for 
work west of Albany. I don't want to do work out- 
side of New England." No doubt he had a good 



220 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

business, very snug and easy-going and comfortable. 
But it is to be hoped that spirit will never dominate 
this church of ours ; that the time will never come 
when it will feel that its work is large enough, that 
it does not care to touch enterprises beyond certain 
limits, that it feels it is bound up to the service of 
any class, any State, any country, under the sun. 
Rather let us see it as greedy as Methodism, as stub- 
bornly and remorselessly aggressive as Romanism. 
For the ambition to expand and to acquire is in this 
instance a holy passion, born of the Holy Ghost, 
ordained of God, and enjoined upon us by Jesus 
Christ ; and in the sight of eyes that look thus long- 
ingly upon all the earth, every spot where the mis- 
sionary may stand with his cry of comfort and salva- 
tion to souls., becomes a sacred place, a shrine of 
worship, a centre toward which effort may tend. 

Ah, we need to turn to the children of this world, 
who in their generation are wiser than we of the 
Universalist Church. There is nothing more im- 
pressive in all the history of commercial enterprise 
than the sagacity and the intrepid energy which 
have kept pace with the growing population of this 
country, and has put its wealth into the work of 
developing the national resources and creating the 
national power with such fearless and unstinting 
ardor. There is something fairly tremendous in the 
unbounded faith, the steadfast perseverance, the un- 
flagging intelligence, with which the business men of 
this country, — capitalists, merchants, manufacturers, 
farmers, builders, — have kept pace with the march 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 221 

of national progress, foreseen the quick-coming de- 
mands of the country, provided for them, advanced 
the capital to procure them, and trusted to the inevi- 
table expansion of population to use what they pro- 
vided and return them a profit on their investment. 
These stirring and big-brained capitalists, who have 
belted the continent with railroads, woven a web of 
wires from sea to sea, planted the prairies with grain, 
and organized markets and channels to distribute 
their crops, will one day be cited as the master 
minds of our century. And for nothing will they 
be more noted than for the readiness with which 
they expanded their plans to keep up with the ex- 
pansion of the country's business. Yet, right along 
beside these large-minded men, there have been scat- 
tered up and down the older States, little, narrow- 
brained, timid men, who have never been able to 
outgrow the pettiness of their methods of making 
money, and who have always looked with suspicion 
on these schemes which were expanding the wealth 
of a continent, and have preferred to grub a hard 
living out of the scrubby hill farms of their native 
towns, or derive their incomes from ten-foot tene- 
ment houses, to venturing on the chances of a prairie 
farm, or helping build the great cities of the mid- 
continent. All right, if they prefer it. Only, Amer- 
ica will never rise up and call them benefactors, 
patriots, or even masters, in the world of business 
enterprise. They will only be a little less of a 
laughing-stock than that loyal son of the island of 
Nantucket, who reasoned with a friend who had 



222 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

ventured away to the perils of that awful city of 
Chicago. " Francis," he said, " what makes thee live 
off island? It's dangerous business. I've read about 
'em. Hundreds of men go every year to these cities. 
Nobody ever hears of 'em again. You know what 
becomes of 'em. Made way with ! Made way with ! 
Oh, it's far safer not to go off island ! " 

There has sometimes seemed a danger that the 
Universalist Church would be seized with the same 
insular panic, — the dread of putting off from its 
traditional snugness, and venturing upon " enter- 
prises of great pith and moment." We must have 
a care lest we shut ourselves up in a policy too 
pinched, penurious, and timid for the times. There 
is a call for that same breadth, foresight, liberality, 
and faith, in things religious, which has furnished the 
resources for the building of this nation's material 
prosperity. The church that makes the most gener- 
ous output best serves the cause of Christ and best 
consults its own profit. Wherever a railroad goes, 
wherever a town is springing up in these vast new 
States, wherever men are rallying at the call of busi- 
ness, there it is the duty of the Church to be prompt 
with its ministers. And if of " the Church " in gen- 
eral, why not of ours in particular ? Are we afraid 
to go off island ? Dare we not make our investments 
in these white harvest-fields that stretch north, east, 
south, and west ? Can we not rise to the call of the 
hour, and feel that the time has come when, if we 
may use a business term, we have to enlarge the 
business, put in more capital, branch out and place 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 223 

ourselves in the front rank of competitors, — not for 
dollars, nor selfish benefits of any sort, but for the 
blessed privilege of serving our fellow-men, our Sav- 
iour, and our God? Not retrenchment, but expan- 
sion ! Not retreat, but advance ! Not doubt about 
ourselves, distrust of each other, disbelief in the 
power of our cause ! But more faith that God has 
called us to a great work, that the people will hear 
us, that we can rely on one another. That way lies 
a future of honor and of limitless success. 

One thought more deserves our urgent atention. 
We have need to reflect upon the results of mission- 
ary enterprise and effort as they react upon the 
character of our workers, and the kind of training 
afforded our own membership. It is to be feared 
that we do not provide, in the crystallizing policy 
which is fast hardening into a denominational habit, 
for as large an exercise of individual gifts as is wise 
in an enterprising people. It is one of the character- 
istics of human enterprise that it knows how to 
utilize all sorts of workers. The enterprising man 
is keenly alive to the need he has of many minds 
and many hands to carry forward his schemes. Now, 
if he is shrewd in his enterprise, he allows a great 
deal of freedom to his agents and his workmen in 
the details of their business. He will find a place 
for every willing hand, provided it is turned to the 
general good of the enterprise. That is the secret of 
many a man's success. A business man who con- 
trols large interests said recently, that he considered 
that he owed his success very largely to the fact 



224 OUR WORD AND WORE FOR MISSIONS. 

that he had selected his subordinates with skill and 
judgment. 

That, doubtless, is one of the secrets of success in 
missionary work. The growth of any church and 
the spread of its truth is, in large measure, dependent 
upon the wisdom and tolerance it shows in calling 
men and women to its work, and placing them where 
they can labor to best advantage, in finding some- 
thing for everybody to do, and in letting people do 
whatever they are doing well. Lord Macaulay pays 
a profound and discriminating tribute to the sagacity 
of the Romish Church, in describing her method of 
making a place for the most diverse natures and 
gifts in the prosecution of her labors. He applauds 
the wisdom of a church which heads off schisms by 
finding a work for every honest heart, however 
eccentric and fanatical, for every man and for every 
woman who has any contribution to make to the 
real life of the church. Let us have that same toler- 
ance and that same sagacity in our own work. It 
should be a part of our zeal for missionary labor that 
we use every soul that has any strength to bring to 
us, man or woman, black or white, from East or from 
West, educated or unlettered. In our zeal for organ- 
ization, and our passion for centralization, which is 
sure to become the dominant sentiment of our church 
before long, let us not repress the freedom of in- 
dividual temperament and genius. We need the 
scholar, and we need the man without culture. We 
need the eloquent lips of the preacher, and the faith- 
ful heart of the pastor. We need the pushing mind 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 225 

of the innovator, as well as the caution and reserve of 
conservatism. 

This is not a covert plea for any of that false liber- 
alism which would make our church a rendezvous 
for all the clans of doubt and discontent, of vague 
belief and uncertain methods. It is not asked that 
we seek to ally ourselves with free religion, or 
theism, the Buddhist or the Jew. No church can 
take into its ranks those who are hostile to the work 
it holds dearest, and the love it cherishes most pro- 
foundly, without peril. We have our tests of loy- 
alty, and Heaven grant that we perpetuate them. 
But when men and women grow up among us, loyal 
to the Lord, true to the church, believers in that his- 
toric Christianity that lies behind us all, then let 
them be supported and fostered in the work they 
love to do. One man prefers to preach among the 
hills of New Hampshire, and keep alive the truth 
in those dwindling hamlets on the heights. Let 
us give him our blessing and — our contribution. 
Another seeks the frontier where advancing people 
are gathering in new towns and cities ; let him work 
there, where by the grace of God he is divinely 
called. If another wants to work in Scotland, and 
repeat in the heart of Scotch Presbyterianism the 
work John Murray and Hosea Ballou did in the 
teeth of New England Congregationalism, will you 
take the responsibility of calling him back, of thwart- 
ing his ambition, and shackling him down to work 
in Maine or Michigan ? Or if some ardent spirit is 
moved to cross the wide waters, and enter the gates 



226 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

of far Japan, or stand on the banks of ancient 
Ganges, with the glad tidings of the universal love 
of God, the all-conquering power of Christ, the final 
conquest of good, let his hands be strengthened, his 
heart cheered, and he himself be sent forth to speak 
into that pagan air the message over which the 
Church's teachers already there must ever stumble 
and halt. A man for every work, and a work for 
every man ! That should be the motto of an enter- 
prising church, and may God make it ours ! 

Bkookjlyn, N.Y., December , 1893. 




J. M. PULLMAN D.D. 



THE LEGITIMACY OF MODERN MISSIONS. 227 



XIV 

THE LEGITIMACY OF MODERN CHRISTIAN 

MISSIONS. 



BY JAMES M. PULLMAN, D.D. 



The object of Christian missions is to lengthen 
the arms of Christ, — to carry his ideal of life, charac- 
ter, and conduct to all the world. The central faith 
which energizes this work is that man is a son of 
God ; that there is therefore somewhat divine in the 
lowest man, which Christian faith and culture may 
develop and mature. Christian missions are simply 
the attempt to get what are believed to be better and 
higher ideas of life and duty introduced into the 
world and adopted by men. 

There can be no question as to the legitimacy of 
this attempt : it is founded in human nature and in 
the conditions of human life. In fact, the missionary 
method — the diffusion of ideas by impartation from 
one person to another — is the chief method by which 
progress is effected in all departments of life. Plants 
grow by virtue of unconscious force, but men grow 
by successive determinate acts of conscious will. 
The knowledge and faith which make for enlighten- 



228 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

ment and civilization are propagated by the method 
of impartation, — the missionary method ; and all 
forward movements of mankind begin and continue 
by the force of missionary effort. 

Nobody doubts the legitimacy of imparting knowl- 
edge. But is it legitimate to impart your knowledge 
to another, and illegitimate to impart your faith and 
hope ? The belief that animates and strengthens me, 
shall I not take pains and make haste to communi- 
cate it to others ? By a law of our natures a living 
faith inevitably creates the desire to impart it, — an 
imperious desire such as forces a man like Paul to 
cry out, " Necessity is laid upon me, for woe is unto 
me if I preach not the glad tidings." We live on 
our beliefs, deriving our paramount energy from 
them, — even the energy by which, from time to 
time, we modify, amend, or discard them ; and the 
man who has lost his missionary impulse, his desire 
to impart and convert, convicts himself of having 
ceased to really and vitally believe. His apathy 
gives him away. His inaction virtually says, " There 
is no truth worth bothering about." And the church 
which has not quick and living belief enough to 
carry it out of itself into missionary effort has not 
faith enough to keep it alive at home. Missionary 
activity is the faith- thermometer of every church. 

There is no essential difference between home and 
foreign missions, so-called. No land is foreign to 
God. Christ's faith in man as a son of God is a seed 
that will grow of itself, once it is planted. The idea, 
once imparted, is imperishable and fruitful. That 



THE LEGITIMACY OF MODERN MISSIONS. 229 

we have not brought the fruit to perfection in the 
home garden, is no reason why we should not dili- 
gently sow the seed in the great field of the world. 
On the contrary, the reflex action of missions is inva- 
riably stimulating to the home church. Energy and 
heroism are awakened, and the fact is patent that 
those churches which are doing most abroad are do- 
ing most at home. The mission, whether at home 
or abroad, is the highest expression of the heroic 
element of Christianity; and the heroism which takes 
up its work in the mining districts of the West, or 
in the squalid slums of a great city, is not to be dif- 
ferenced, in kind or degree, from that which chooses 
its field of effort in India or Japan. 

Christian missions are legitimate, being founded in 
the nature of things. But illegitimate methods, or 
at least methods which under modern lights are 
reprobated as illegitimate, have in all times been 
employed in the propagation of religious beliefs. 
Before the rights, duties, and responsibilities of the 
individual had been defined, the feeling of corporate 
responsibility for the beliefs of the members of a com- 
munity was used to justify the resort to both force 
and fraud, to coerce allegiance to the dominant faith. 
And in later days the passion for sectarian aggran- 
dizement has led to many questionable methods. 
The proselyting spirit, intent upon procuring adhe- 
rence to certain tenets at all hazards, and without 
regard to the effect upon conduct and character, 
received the severest rebuke from the lips of Jesus : 
"Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; 



230 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

and when he is become so, ye make him twofold 
more a son of gehenna than yourselves." The preju- 
dice against missions, now so rapidly passing away 
from intelligent minds, owed much of its inveteracy 
to the illegitimacy, both of motive and method, 
with which missionary enterprise was associated and 
identified. 

How violent and inveterate the prejudice against 
missions was in the beginning of the present century, 
we may learn by turning to Dr. Chalmers's famous 
missionary sermon, preached in Edinburgh in 1814. 
It should be remembered that this feeling was not di- 
rected against foreign missions only ; it was equally 
violent against the proposition to establish missions 
in the outlying neglected regions of Scotland. Dr. 
Chalmers says : — 

" In this corner of the empire there is an impetuous 
and overbearing contempt for everything connected 
with the name of missionary. ... A great pro- 
portion of our nobility, gentry, and clergy look upon 
it as a very low and driveling concern ; as a visionary 
enterprise, and that no good thing can come out of 
it ; as a mere dreg of sectarianism, and which none 
but sectarians, or men who should have been sectari- 
ans, have any relish or respect for. The torrent of 
prejudice runs strongly against it, and the very name 
of missionary excites the most nauseous antipathy 
in the hearts of many who, in other departments, 
approve themselves as able, candid, and reflecting 
inquirers." 

Possibly some modern haters of missions may see 
their own feelings reflected in this picture, and may 



THE LEGITIMACY OF MODERN MISSIONS. 231 

enjoy the quaint humor with which the doctor reasons 
the case : — 

" Convert the preacher into a missionary, and all 
you have done is to graft upon the man's preaching 
the circumstance of locomotion. How comes it that 
the talent and the eloquence and the principle 
which appeared so respectable in your eyes so long 
as they stood still, lose all their respectability so soon 
as they begin to move ? . . . The precept is, 
'Go and preach the gospel to every creature under 
heaven.' The people I allude to have no particular 
quarrel with the preach; but they have a mortal 
antipathy to the go . . ." 

But in spite of the intense opposition to Christian 
missions, both domestic and foreign, to which Dr. 
Chalmers adverts, the progress of missions is one of 
the most extraordinary features of our age. As Pro- 
fessor George P. Fisher says, " The evangelical re- 
vival in England, together with the new sympathy 
for humanity which manifested itself in the social 
and political movements of the later years of the eigh- 
teenth century, ushered in a brilliant era of mission- 
ary activity, an era which, in the history of missions, 
is only less remarkable than the first of the Christian 
ages." The chief cause of this extraordinary and 
still augmenting missionary activity is not far to 
seek. It lies in that u new sympathy with human- 
ity" which the growing perception of the organic 
unity of the race has engendered. The perception 
of the structural and essential unity of the human 
race is the new centre of thought and action in mod- 
ern life, and has given immense impetus to the great 



232 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

world-movement against the preventable evils of life. 
In other words, missionary activity has increased be- 
cause the actual spirit of Jesus, freed from ecclesias- 
tical and creedal limitations, more and more inspires 
men with the enthusiasm of humanity. That this 
great impulse of helpfulness is still alloyed with sec- 
tarian ambitions, jealousies, and bigotries, no one who 
studies the actual situation can doubt ; but notwith- 
standing this drawback, the tide of human sympathy 
has risen higher than ever before, overflowing dog- 
matic barriers and compelling sectarian zeal to widen 
and rationalize its activities. 

There has been a great change in the spirit and 
method of missions. They have broadened the scope 
of their work, and deepened the humane and ethical 
intent of it. In 1890 I visited American missions in 
thirteen Mexican cities. In every case I found the 
school to be the chief implement of the mission. 
" Our object is not," said one Napoleonic missioner, 
who had established a chain of missions across the 
country from the Rio Grande to the Pacific — " our 
object is not to convert these people from one super- 
stition into another, but to educate them." When I 
asked a missionary who had invited me to address 
an assembly of his converts, what subject I should 
choose, he said, " Give them a plain talk on morals 
and conduct." I do not mean to imply that the 
tenets of Protestant Christianity were not rigorously 
taught, nor that the special church-rites of his par- 
ticular sect were not rigidly adhered to, but they 
were certainly subordinated to the effort to elevate 



THE LEGITIMACY OF MODERN MISSIONS. 233 

the people by awakening their intellect, reforming 
their habits, stimulating their ambition, and exalting 
their ideals. Every prejudice I had ever cherished 
against this form of Christian work disappeared un- 
der an actual inspection of the methods employed 
and the results achieved. 

And when I addressed myself to find the innermost 
motive which actuated this able and energetic mis- 
sioner, I was not long in seeing that over and above 
the sympathy for degraded humanity, there was in 
him the undoubting assurance of a direct divine call 
to this work, and that he felt himself sustained, pro- 
tected, and guided by the ever-present Spirit of God. 
He was a soldier, fighting under orders, and with 
absolute confidence in his Captain. Now, if this 
high faith be all illusion, I can only say it is a most 
beneficent illusion ; and when it energizes men to 
leave home and country, and devote their lives to 
such good work upon the ignorant, wretched, and 
degraded, we would do well to support and encourage 
them with generous gifts. It is certainly not folly 
to spend money in making the lives of your fellow- 
creatures less pitiful and more hopeful. And there 
can be no doubt that, as the work of Christian mis- 
sions continues to grow more broad, direct, and prac- 
tical, and as the humane and sociological value of 
missions thus becomes more apparent, they will com- 
mand the respect and increasing support both of 
Christian believers and non-believers. I read with 
interest that Charles Darwin was in his later years a 
contributor to a Missionary Society, no doubt in obe- 



234 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

dience to the feeling with which, in 1879, he added 
this final paragraph to his autobiography : "As for 
myself, I believe I have acted rightly in steadily fol- 
lowing and devoting my life to science. I feel no 
remorse from having committed any great sin, but 
have often and often regretted that I have not done 
more direct good to my fellow-creatures." 

The sense of the illegitimacy of Christian missions, 
and the feeling of antipathy to them, are certainly 
rapidly passing away. 

Home missions, in nearly all their varied forms, 
have everywhere won the support not alone of Chris- 
tian believers, but of all who understand the social 
forces ; while the broad and beneficent values of for- 
eign missions are more and more clearly coming out 
under the rays of the modern search-lights. Thus, 
the Rev. Francis Tiffany, a distinguished Unitarian 
minister, an unusually competent observer, and one 
whose testimony has special force by reason of his 
freedom from sectarian bias, writes from India re- 
cently (1894) as follows : — 

" To the missionaries, decried and sneered at on 
every hand, are due the inception and first practical 
illustration of every reform in education, in medicine, 
in the revelation of the idea of a common humanity, 
in the elevation of the condition of woman, afterward 
taken up by the government. It seems, however, to 
be the correct thing for the ordinary tourist to speak 
with unutterable contempt of missionaries, and then, 
to avoid being prejudiced in any way, carefully to 
refrain from ever going within ten miles of them and 
their work. The thing to take for granted is that 



THE LEGITIMACY OF MODERN MISSIONS. 235 

they are narrow-minded bigots, with nothing they 
care to import into India but hell-fire. To all this I 
want to enter my emphatic and indignant protest. 
Such of them as I have fallen in with, I have found 
the most earnest and broad-minded men and women 
anywhere to be encountered — the men and women 
best acquainted with Indian thought, customs, and 
inward life, and who are doing the most toward the 
elevation of the rational and moral character of the 
nation. It has brought tears to my eyes to inspect 
such an educational establishment for girls and young 
women as that of Miss Thorburn in Lucknow, and to 
see what new heavens and a new earth she is opening 
up to them. The consecration of spirit with which 
these young women are dedicating themselves to the 
work of getting ready to lift out of the gulf of igno- 
rance and superstition their sister women of India, 
was one of the most moving sights I ever beheld." 

The broad, general considerations which uphold 
the legitimacy of Christian missions are well sum- 
marized in the following paragraph, from the London 
Quarterly Review for January, 1894 : — 

" There is hardly a branch of human study, as there 
is no exercise of lofty and self-denying effort, which 
has not found ample scope on the mission-field, or has 
not been enriched in the pursuit of missionary work. 
Philology, geography, and ethnography, our recent 
science of comparative religions, our extended knowl- 
edge of the world's surface, our clearer comprehen- 
sion of the primitive state of man, have all been 
widely indebted to the labors of those who have gone 
forth to carry the Master's message into the depths 
of continents hitherto untrodden by Europeans, or 
who have been nerved to penetrate into territories 
where death would probably be the portion of the in- 



236 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

trader. Nor have the material advantages of mis- 
sionary work been less conspicuous. The extension 
of Christianity means the extension of a civilization 
which brings new ideas in its train, before which the 
walls of the most inveterate exclusiveness are falling, 
which opens out new markets for the world's prod- 
ucts, and which by the introduction of more humane 
and progressive principles into the government of 
savage and stationary races, ameliorates the condi- 
tion and augments the happiness of a large proportion 
of mankind. Such blessings inevitably follow in the 
track of missions ; and it would seem, therefore, to be 
the height of folly to sneer at missionary effort, and 
the mark of culpable ignorance not to know what is 
doing in this noble field of human enterprise. It is 
too late to speak of efforts as futile or fanatic which 
have literally girdled the globe with a chain of mis- 
sionary stations ; and those who now speak scornfully 
of missions are simply men behind their age." 

The incapacity even of great minds for estimating 
the trend and persistence of the forces which have 
created the brilliant activity of modern missions, is 
well shown by Col. T. W. Higginson in the Open 
Court. 

"Emerson declared, forty years ago, that what 
hold the popular faith had upon the people was 
c gone, or going.' He asked why we should drag 
the dead weight of the Sunday-school over the globe, 
— and lived to see his own daughter holding a 
Sunday-school for little Arab children on the Nile." 

The fact is, that of all the uplifting agencies opera- 
tive in this world, none has such power to inspire 
man to struggle toward a higher life, as the essential 



THE LEGITIMACY OF MODERN MISSIONS. 237 

Christian doctrine that man is a son and fellow-worker 
with God, having a divine origin and an unlimited 
capacity for progress. 

Whatever agency will most effectively convey this 
message to all conditions of men the world around, 
will most surely bless and exalt humanity. The 
carrying of this message, with all that pertains to it, 
is the work of modern missions. As it is the deepest, 
and therefore often the least valued, work of domestic 
missions, to bring the different classes of a nation 
into a vital relation with each other, so it is the work 
of foreign missions to bring the different and remote 
races into a vital relation with each other. Missions 
are the shuttles which carry these threads of relation- 
ship around the globe, and they are surely, if slowly, 
weaving the world into one web of brotherhood. 

Lynn, Mass., April, 1894. 



238 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 



XV 

MOTIVE ANP MOVEMENT IN MISSIONS. 



BY HENRY W. RUGG, D.D. 



Missions bear witness to the truth of Christianity. 
They appear as the logical outcome of gospel princi- 
ples and tendencies, and may help to make evident 
the fact that the Christ system of religion is in har- 
mony with itself. While missions do not in them- 
selves constitute the credentials by which to establish 
the genuineness of the Christian record or to make 
valid its claims to authority, and while they fail to 
furnish a sufficient indorsement to theological prop- 
ositions or ecclesiastical methods, it is yet reasonable 
to assume that they do attest the truth, as well as 
manifest the power, of the gospel of the Son of God. 

Had there been no Christian Missions, no expres- 
sion of missionary fervor on the part of men and 
women who believed that Jesus was the Christ, no 
movements on the part of the Church to advance the 
Master's kingdom, we should be more perplexed than 
we now are concerning many things which are in- 
cluded in the Evangelists' account of his life and 
teachings. We should wonder why Jesus put that 
suggestive stamp upon the gospel and upon his own 




HENRY W. RUGG, D.D 



MOTIVE AND MOVEMENT IN MISSIONS. 239 

ministry which he did by his memorable utterances, 
" My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. My meat 
is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish 
his work." Were there no record through all the 
centuries of Christian activities along the lines thus 
indicated, we should find it a difficult task to read a 
satisfactory meaning into such words, or to draw in- 
ferences from them in accord with the results shown. 
If the early Church had evinced no purpose of moral 
aggressiveness, and if all along the way from the 
early time until now there were wanting the bright 
tokens of missionary enterprise, we should assuredly 
lack much of our present clear vision respecting the 
aim and object of Christ's ministry among men, and 
the wide range of service to which his followers are 
called. 

Gospel statements bearing upon this matter, with 
all the justifiable inferences drawn from the course 
pursued by Jesus when he was on the earth in mortal 
form, become more significant as they are brought 
into the light of that unquestioned history which 
reveals Christianity as an advancing and conquering 
religion. From the beginning it has been a mission- 
ary religion. Its elemental character has been ex- 
pressed by aggressive movements against error and 
sin. The apostles were missionaries. The churches 
they established were centres of missionary influence. 
Thus Christianity made its way triumphantly from 
Palestine, through the regions of Northern Africa, to 
Southern Europe. It mounted the throne of the 
Caesars ; it transformed heathen basilicas into Chris- 



240 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

tian temples ; and it won to its service the might of 
kings and the favor of the common people. The 
first and most glorious successes of the religion of 
Christ were missionary successes. Under the influ- 
ence of a marvellous proselyting energy the " Gospel 
of the kingdom " was successively proclaimed to the 
Roman, the Celtic, the Teutonic, and the Scandina- 
vian world. Ardent disciples of the crucified One 
showed a heroic purpose to plant the banner of the 
cross on every coast, in every land. During the 
Middle Ages there came a period of declension, when, 
with lessened moral earnestness animating the minds 
of believers, with the compressing of the simple 
truths of the gospel into narrow dogmas, and with 
the attention of the Church chiefly directed to matters 
of form, ritual, and spectacular effect, there was a 
marked abatement of evangelistic movement. But 
missionary ardor revived ; and the history of even 
mediaeval times shows many an illumined page on 
which the story is told of heroic labors and generous 
offerings applied to the propagation of the Christian 
faith. The methods employed were not always com- 
mendable. Propagandism by the sword made evident 
far more of the warrior's zeal than of the Christian's 
love of souls. But with all this conceded, the prop- 
osition holds good that such uprisings as the Cru- 
sades, reflecting so much of noble purpose, chivalric 
enterprise, and religious enthusiasm, are properly to 
be included in those important movements which 
illustrate the aggressive elements of the religion of 
Christ and its fitness for universal conquests. 



MOTIVE AND MOVEMENT IN MISSIONS. 241 

It cannot be affirmed that Christianity is the only 
religion possessed of a missionary spirit and purpose. 
Buddhism claims to be entitled to a similar designa- 
tion ; Mohammedanism asserts itself as a system of a 
propagandism ; and both of these religions have pro- 
jected missionary movements attended by remarkable 
results. " But the missionary activity of Buddhism," 
says Dr. G. F. Maclear of Canterbury, " is a thing of 
the past, and no characteristic rite distinguishing it 
has found its way into a second continent ; while as 
for Mohammedanism, the character of its teaching is 
too exact a reflection of the race, time, place, and 
climate in which it arose, to admit of its becoming 
universal." Practically there is but one missionary 
religion on the face of the globe to-day — certainly 
but one which has the promise and potency of con- 
quering the world to itself. As the writer just quoted 
remarks : " With all its deficiencies, the Christian 
Church has gained the i nations of the future ; ' and 
whereas in the third century the proportion of Chris- 
tians to the whole human race was only that of one 
in a hundred and fifty, this has now been exchanged 
for one in five, and it is indisputable that the progress 
of the human race at this moment is entirely identified 
with the spread of the influence of the nations of 
Christendom." 

In every age the Church of Christ has been busy 
with missionary enterprises. It has not been equally 
devoted in every period of its history to the work of 
teaching and converting the world ; sometimes, in- 
deed, it has been culpably neglectful of the command 



242 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

announced in the Magna Charta of its appointment. 
Through all the centuries, however, it has shown 
some degree of missionary purpose, has responded to 
numerous Macedonian calls, and thus has rendered 
a mighty and blessed service. Whatever their limi- 
tations, whatever their departures from ideal stand- 
ards, Christian missions have served an important 
purpose in promoting the world's progress and con- 
tributing to the betterment of its social and religious 
life. 

In modern times, with a renewal of some measure 
of the fervor which characterized the early Church, 
missionary work has broadened, and has become 
glorious in its results. The "apostles of the anvil 
and workshop " were able to set on foot a mighty 
movement to Christianize heathen lands. This world- 
wide movement of modern missions presents an object- 
lesson to quicken the faith of all resolute workers for 
God and humanity. " To talk of the failure of 
Foreign Missions," says Canon Farrar, "is to talk 
at once like an ignorant and like a faithless man." 
Marvellous, indeed, have been the changes and trans- 
formations brought about by missionary agencies 
within the last hundred years. A gifted writer, Rev. 
Dr. Pierson, in advocating an " Exposition of Mis- 
sions," presents the following suggestive contrast: — 

" What if we could have an exposition of missions 
as the first century of modern missions draws to a 
close the triumphant history of this sacred evangel- 
ism! What if the present condition of the world, of 
every land and people touched by missionary effort, 



MOTIVE AND MOVEMENT IN MISSIONS. 243 

might be compared, contrasted, with that of one hun- 
dred years ago ! What if we could have there, repre- 
sented in miniature, the Schway Mote Tau Pagoda 
on one hill, with its idol shrines and superstitious 
wild men, confronting the Kho-Thah-Byu Memorial 
Hall, with its holy worship, its reverent church mem- 
bers, its intelligent classes of pupils, and the fifty 
thousand living and dead Karen converts, of which 
it is the 4 Ebenezer.' What if we could have the 
thousand cannibal ovens of the Fijians to confront 
in glorious contrast the twelve hundred Christian 
churches now reared in their place ; the chiefs' huts, 
built on piles round which human beings were buried 
alive ; the chiefs' canoes, launched over human bodies 
as rollers ; to compare with the Christian homes in 
which the voice of family worship now may be heard, 
and the floating bethels where seamen may learn of 
the Christ who came not to kill but to save. What 
if we could in the same department represent the 
horrors of that mixed multitude in Sierra Leone, the 
refuse of slave-ships, that had no communication but 
that of vice, and no co-operation but that of crime, 
until William Johnson introduced that gospel which 
became a common dialect and brought this score of 
hostile and fiendish tribes into harmony at the Lord's 
Table. What if Sierra Leone could be 4 exposed ' 
as it was in 1816, and again exhibited as it was in 
1828 ! Suppose we could on one side set Madagascar 
as it was under Ranavalona I., and then as it was 
under Ranavalona II., or Nanumaga as it was when 
Thomas Powell set a native evangelist there, and the 
superstitious inhabitants kept him two hours on the 
beach while they reconciled their dumb idols to his 
remaining ; and two years later, when there was not 
an idol to be found on the island, and the whole com- 
munity was under Christian instruction." 



244 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSION'S, 

The foregoing citations of representative cases 
make evident the productiveness of Christian enter- 
prise in the nineteenth century, revealing the opera- 
tions of the missionary spirit in these later days in 
favorable comparison with its expression by the 
Church in primitive and mediaeval times. 

The question of motive as related to Christian 
Missions is one of interest. What have been, what 
should be, the controlling motives of efforts put forth 
for the discipling of the world according to Christ's 
command ? 

The motives of human actions may not always be 
known ; and it is best, perhaps, in many cases, not to 
institute too close a scrutiny in regard to the direct- 
ing influences of worthy movements. No doubt a 
strict inquiry would reveal a touch of selfishness in 
very much of individual conduct and of associated 
undertakings. Dean Swift once said, " Self-love gov- 
erns the world ; but the self-love of some men in- 
clines them to please others, while the self-love of 
another class is wholly employed in pleasing them- 
selves." If missionary service, reduced to its lowest 
terms, shows the selfish principle, it is some comfort 
to consider that it is the better form of that principle 
which is thus expressed. "Ordinarily," says Ralph 
Waldo Emerson, "a man acts not from one motive 
but from many: he is influenced by many shifting 
fears and short motives." That the Church even in 
its work of sacred evangelism has been thus led and 
constrained is clearly evident. " Short motives and 
shifting fears " have limited missionary efforts both 



MOTIVE AND MOVEMENT IN MISSIONS. 245 

as regards the quantity and the quality of their pro- 
ductiveness. Various have been the springs of action 
to such efforts. Sometimes greed of power has been 
the cause of very urgent movements to advance the 
kingdom of Christ among men ; sometimes a fanati- 
cal zeal has directed such movements which, not 
unlikely, bear the impress of heroic purpose and 
enterprise, albeit they were undertaken and carried 
forward without much regard for the moral issues 
involved, certainly without any well defined plan to 
extend the range of truth and righteousness on the 
earth. The Crusades represent such a movement. 
They show a wonderful quickening of religious enthu- 
siasm, with bold and resolute endeavors, generous 
offerings, noble self-sacrifice, all of which are charac- 
teristic of true missionary enterprise ; and yet the 
arousing of Christendom for the great crusading 
movements of the Middle Ages was not the result 
of an appeal to the highest motives. Passions and 
feelings which belong to the lower side of human 
nature constituted a considerable part of the impel- 
ling force of the Crusades. The old Crusaders turned 
back the tide of Moslem advance, saved Europe from 
Turkish invasion, and made good showing of some of 
the essential qualities which, belong to all missionary 
service. They were actuated by " short motives and 
shifting fears ; " nevertheless, they could work and 
fight and die for God, for religion, and for humanity, 
and by so doing in a very dark age of the world they 
lifted up the sign of Christian faith and enterprise. 
Modern missions have been undertaken from vari- 



246 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSION'S. 

ous reasons. Church pride, a low order of ambition, 
a desire for conquest, or a hard, constrained sense of 
duty, appear to have prompted important mission 
movements. A careful study of the history of Chris- 
tian Missions will also show that such movements 
have gained a measure of support because of the 
dark and terrible views entertained by many Chris- 
tian believers respecting human destiny. They have 
regarded the heathen world, dying without a knowl- 
edge of Christ, as lost forever ; they have seemed to 
see the smoke of their torment ascending up from 
the world of despair for ever and ever; they have 
seemed to hear the ceaseless wails of agony poured 
forth by lost souls, whose just complaint throughout 
all the ages would be that their brethren on the earth, 
who had received a dispensation of the gospel, did 
not make them sharers in its blessings. 

Thus believing, thus limiting the mercy of God 
and the redemptive agencies of Christ, the Church 
has been moved to project extensive missionary move- 
ments. Earnest men and women have given to such 
movements their unwavering support, being pro- 
foundly impressed by the thought that without mis- 
sionary intervention and help the heathen were going 
down to the hopeless chambers of death, surely 
doomed to an unending condition of sin and woe. 
Believers thus affected shared in a feeling that they 
themselves would provoke the righteous displeasure 
of Heaven, and be burdened with the anguish of lost 
souls, should they give and do nothing in behalf of 
the preaching of Christ and his cross to the benighted 
and perishing. 



MOTIVE AND MOVEMENT IN MISSIONS. 247 

In beliefs and feelings thus outlined, the nerve of 
missions was supposed to be most vital, and its influ- 
ence was regarded as essential in furnishing an incite- 
ment for any well sustained efforts in discipling the 
nations of earth. A different view now prevails ; 
for the Christian world perceives that missionary 
fervor produced in the old way cannot possibly repre- 
sent the most exalted thought or the most productive 
service. Christianity is reduced to a system of "short 
motives and shifting fears " whenever and wherever 
thus applied. 

What then constitutes the superior motive in mis- 
sions ? Is it not the outcome of a recognition of God 
and of the divine authority ? Is it not the apprecia- 
tion of obligation which must follow such a discern- 
ment ? The individual soul is endowed with a native 
capacity to recognize God and moral obligation, to 
see that certain actions are right, and to understand 
that obedience to a law of duty thus revealed, consti- 
tutes an essential condition to the highest and best 
life. Just here may be found the incentive and the 
justification of missionary service. We should engage 
in Christian Missions as we should take hold of any 
religious work, being impelled thereto by a feeling 
of moral accountability. Because we are " capable of 
thinking God's thoughts after him," — because we 
have been made " little lower than the angels," — 
there comes the obligation to obey God's law, which 
commands service as well as faith, and to gain an 
experimental knowledge of the fact stated by St. Paul, 
that " we are labourers together with God." 



248 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

Motive in missions springs naturally out of respect 
for divine authority, and is inseparably connected with 
a sense of obligation toward God; but it is also de- 
pendent upon a natural feeling of sympathy between 
men as men. Human kindredness imposes obligations 
of beneficence and helpfulness. Christianity recog- 
nizes the demands of related life. It builds upon 
the proposition that no man liveth to himself, that 
everybody must help everybody, that duty is aug- 
mented by the possession of gifts and resources, 
whether of things material or of Christian virtues ; 
and hence it makes the demand that the strong sup- 
port the weak, that the wise instruct the ignorant, 
and that they who occupy any moral vantage-ground 
shall put forth their best efforts to bring their less 
favored brethren to realize like blessings with them- 
selves. The motive and the call are suggested by 
the familiar lines, — 

i " Shall we, whose souls are lighted 

I By wisdom from on high, 

Shall we to men benighted 
The lamp of life deny ? " 

The obligation is upon us ; the obligation of ser- 
vice toward God and man. Primarily the motive of 
missions is thus disclosed ; but as " love is the fulfil- 
ing of the law," the inspiration of all Christian activ- 
ities proceeds from quickened affections as much as 
from an enlightened conscience. It is the awakened 
sensibility of human hearts, the ardor of a resistless 
love, which sets in motion the springs of beneficent 



MOTIVE AND MOVEMENT IN MISSIONS. 249 

action and induces the starting of movements that 
require the most of toil and self-sacrifice. Love is 
the watchword of our religion, — love is the nerve of 
Christian missions ; and only as the love of God and 
the love of our fellow-men becomes a ruling power 
over our hearts can we become heartily committed to 
missionary service at home and abroad. Love of 
Christ, love of souls, will put wings to our feet in 
going forth to the ministries of discipling the nations 
of earth. Other motives may be recognized as set- 
ting toward such work. Love for a distinctive faith, 
a zealous attachment for one's own church, a loyal 
devotion to its interests, constitute inducements to 
missionary activity, and strengthen the appeals which 
may be urged upon different bodies of Christians to 
engage in such service. There are Baptist missions, 
Methodist missions, Universalist missions, etc., and 
consequently there are denominational appeals of a 
legitimate character ; but the inclusive term is Chris- 
tian missions, and under this classification there must 
go into every movement of whatever special designa- 
tion the love of truth, the love of humanity, the love 
of God ; for only as thus actuated and accented can 
the best work be done and the true missionary har- 
vest be gathered. 

Eliminating, so far as possible, " short motives and 
shifting fears " from the producing causes of missions, 
there yet remain ample inducements to prompt be- 
lieving men to engage in some practical service for 
Christianizing the world. The sufficiency of motive 
is clearly evident; what, then, ought the movement 



250 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

to be? It should be accelerated; it should have a 
wider swing. Every church should undertake vastly 
more of missionary service at home and abroad. Our 
own communion should multiply its activities under 
the impulse of the Christ spirit, esteeming itself for- 
tunate that it has the resources and the opportunities 
to prosecute more abundant labors of love among 
mankind. 

For the carrying forward of such enterprises men 
and money are requisite. Christian missions depend 
upon the living preacher. " How shall they believe 
in Him whom they have not heard ? How shall they 
hear without a preacher ? And how shall they preach 
except they be sent ? " It is by living men and 
women that the gospel is to be proclaimed, both in 
what we call domestic missions and in foreign mis- 
sions. First of all there is needed a supply of de- 
voted men and women well equipped for missionary 
service and thoroughly imbued with love of Christ 
and love of souls. These can make sacrifices ; for 
they will find the effacement of selfhood easy by 
reason of the splendor and glory which appear in the 
results of that work to which they attach themselves. 
These will become missionaries in very deed and 
truth. " It is the man who is the missionary ; it is 
not his words." Dr. Norman Macleod, in an address 
given after his missionary journey to India, declared 
the most urgent need of missions to be large-hearted, 
consecrated, loving men. " Only by living men can 
the truth be proclaimed. Send to the East the mis- 
sionary. Let him be a man Avho embodies Christian- 



MOTIVE AND MOVEMENT IN MISSIONS. 251 

ity. Let him be a man who in his justice, generosity, 
love, and self-sacrifice, would make the Hindoo feel 
that he had a brother given him by a common Father. 
Let missionaries such as these prepare the Hindoos 
to form a church for themselves. Give them the gun- 
powder, and they will make their own cannon." 

The movement by Christian missions should be 
widened and accelerated. Men and women are 
wanted for the work. Where shall they be found? 
How and by what means shall they be raised up? 
From every corner of the earth comes the appeal for 
Christian teachers and preachers. Just now the pres- 
ent writer has been reading an earnest plea for help, 
coming from the lips and heart of one who has had 
long experience in the work of foreign missions. He 
says, " Where are the prophets, and the sons of 
prophets, and the spirit of the prophets ? Advertise 
for them ; they are certainly in the mountains. But 
the answer of Christendom is, We have advertised, 
and we cannot find them. Uncounted millions in 
Turkey, India, China, Japan, and elsewhere, wait for 
the gospel ; but where are the prophets ? " How pa- 
thetically this cry and every similar appeal sound 
forth ! Where, indeed, shall we find the young men 
and young women animated by the spirit of Christ, 
who shall be animated by a resolute purpose to enter 
into these wide and effectual doors which are being 
providentially opened in these latter days all over the 
world? Every church has a faithful few, imbued 
with the missionary spirit. But the supply is by no 
means equal to the demand. The increase of laborers 



252 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

does not keep pace with the growth of the harvest. 
How shall the number be augmented ? 

There must be special helps afforded, special efforts 
put forth, to secure the desired result. The Sunday- 
school, the conference, the pulpit, the religious press, 
should give more prominence to the cause of mis- 
sions. Missionary literature should be provided and 
disseminated. Efforts should be put forth to arouse 
the missionary spirit among students in our colleges 
and theological schools. The Church should become 
sensitive on the subject. The earnest prayer, " Thy 
kingdom come," going up to heaven from faithful 
souls, should be accompanied by hearty and persistent 
endeavors to bring about a full accomplishment of the 
petition. Thus work should be done, influences ex- 
erted, through a variety of helpful agencies, and all 
needed contributions of money made, in preparing 
for a vaster sweep of missionary enterprise than has 
yet been attempted. Back of the preparation, the 
education, and the training, as of missionary work 
itself, must be a vitalized church, committed to whole- 
some service for the welfare of men. It must be a 
praying church and a working church, ready to en- 
gage in every well-considered movement to conquer 
the world for Christ. It must be a church composed 
of believing men and women, who will be disposed 
to undertake large enterprises because of a mighty 
faith that fills their souls. The world is moved by 
men of strong convictions, of profound faith. " No 
great deed," says George Eliot, " is ever done by 
doubters." We live by faith, we walk and work by 



MOTIVE AND MOVEMENT IN MISSIONS. 253 

faith, and the force of every religious movement 
which commands our attention, and in some degree 
receives our help, will be measured by the quality 
and strength of our convictions. " According to 
your faith be it unto you " applies to the Church and 
to the individual believer. 

Blessed is that service to which our church is 
called, as a part of the Church universal, in propa- 
gating Christian truth, and helping to extend the 
kingdom of our Lord on the earth ! Blessed is the 
cause of missions, which represents the educating, 
philanthropic, and redeeming forces of the gospel ! 
Blessed the offerings and the labors thus induced, 
the effacement of selfishness, the ardor of pure love 
and quenchless faith, displayed anywhere and every- 
where to save the world for Christ ! Our word for 
missions, a word specially addressed to the Universal- 
ist Church, — what is it but an appeal to hear and 
heed the Master's call, and march forth with him to 
victory? Our work for missions — it must not be 
suffered to languish and deteriorate. To allow this 
would be to invite denominational decay and death 
itself. The work must be augmented. New fields 
must be entered upon, and the spirit of Christian 
enterprise must be expressed all along the line of a 
forward movement. The machinery of our church 
is excellent : it is well adapted to the purposes and 
requirements of such a movement; but it will not 
move of itself to accomplish the desired ends. The 
spirit of a robust and aggressive church must turn its 
wheels ; and for this endowment of power our depend- 



254 OUR WORD AND WORK FOR MISSIONS. 

ence is in the impulse from above, — the urgency of 
God's directing, constraining, inspiring energy which 
forever draws men after him, and qualifies them 
to be efficient workers for righteousness and truth. 
Thus may the highest motive power come to our 
church, to move it to do its full part in discipling 
the world to Christ. " Except the Lord build the 
house, they labor in vain that build it." 

Providence, January, 1894. 



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